Fortnightly - Energy Secretary Steven Chuhttp://www.fortnightly.com/tags/energy-secretary-steven-chu
enVendor Neutralhttp://www.fortnightly.com/fortnightly/2011/05/vendor-neutral
<div class="field field-name-field-import-category field-type-text field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Category:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Vendor Neutral</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-import-volume field-type-node-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Magazine Volume:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Fortnightly Magazine - May 2011</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-import-image field-type-image field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Image:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://www.fortnightly.com/sites/default/files/1105-VENpic1.jpg" width="991" height="557" alt="Florida Gov. Rick Scott and Florida Senate President Mike Haridopolos were on hand to help Florida Power &amp; Light unveil what FPL called the first hybrid solar power plant in the world—FPL’s Martin Next Generation Solar Energy Center. Spanning approximately 500 acres in western Martin County, Fla., the 75-MW hybrid facility connects a field of more than 190,000 solar thermal mirrors with an existing combined-cycle natural gas power plant to reduce fossil fuel consumption. FPL expects the project to displace " title="Florida Gov. Rick Scott and Florida Senate President Mike Haridopolos were on hand to help Florida Power &amp; Light unveil what FPL called the first hybrid solar power plant in the world—FPL’s Martin Next Generation Solar Energy Center. Spanning approximately 500 acres in western Martin County, Fla., the 75-MW hybrid facility connects a field of more than 190,000 solar thermal mirrors with an existing combined-cycle natural gas power plant to reduce fossil fuel consumption. FPL expects the project to displace combustion of approximately 41 billion cubic feet of natural gas and more than 600,000 barrels of oil—saving customers approximately $178 million in fuel costs over the facility’s estimated 30-year lifetime. The project began initial operations in November 2010." /></div><div class="field-item odd"><img src="http://www.fortnightly.com/sites/default/files/1105-VENpic2.jpg" width="1500" height="898" alt="Columbia Power Technologies deployed its first SeaRay wave-power prototype system in Puget Sound. The sea trials represent a milestone in moving from the pre-commercial stage toward commercial viability for wave power, which generates electricity from ocean swells. Late last year, Columbia Power secured a $2 million Series A private equity infusion from the Oregon Angel Fund, and plans another investment round in 2011." title="Columbia Power Technologies deployed its first SeaRay wave-power prototype system in Puget Sound. The sea trials represent a milestone in moving from the pre-commercial stage toward commercial viability for wave power, which generates electricity from ocean swells. Late last year, Columbia Power secured a $2 million Series A private equity infusion from the Oregon Angel Fund, and plans another investment round in 2011." /></div><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://www.fortnightly.com/sites/default/files/1105-VENpic3.jpg" width="229" height="354" alt="Energetix Pnu Power developed a range of compressed air batteries as direct replacements for conventional battery and flywheel power backup systems. Supplied as plug-and-play units from 3 kW to 200 kW, the batteries have been deployed by National Grid in the U.K. and United States. Energetix says the systems can be driven from industry standard compressed air cylinders with an auto compressor for recharging, or plant mains air supplies. Pnu Power has also developed a containerized backup power system using " title="Energetix Pnu Power developed a range of compressed air batteries as direct replacements for conventional battery and flywheel power backup systems. Supplied as plug-and-play units from 3 kW to 200 kW, the batteries have been deployed by National Grid in the U.K. and United States. Energetix says the systems can be driven from industry standard compressed air cylinders with an auto compressor for recharging, or plant mains air supplies. Pnu Power has also developed a containerized backup power system using a compressed air battery and a diesel generator." /></div><div class="field-item odd"><img src="http://www.fortnightly.com/sites/default/files/1105-VENpic4_0.jpg" width="730" height="547" alt="Prudent Energy received a grant from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) toward construction and operation of a Vanadium Redox battery energy storage system (VRB-ESS) with SunPower’s PV systems. The grant and construction of the system will be completed in cooperation with SunPower, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&amp;E), KEMA and Sandia National Laboratories. Prudent’s VRB-ESS energy storage system works similarly to a rechargeable fuel cell, where chemical energy is converted into electrical energy" title="Prudent Energy received a grant from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) toward construction and operation of a Vanadium Redox battery energy storage system (VRB-ESS) with SunPower’s PV systems. The grant and construction of the system will be completed in cooperation with SunPower, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&amp;E), KEMA and Sandia National Laboratories. Prudent’s VRB-ESS energy storage system works similarly to a rechargeable fuel cell, where chemical energy is converted into electrical energy in a quick manner." /></div><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://www.fortnightly.com/sites/default/files/1105-VENpic5_0.jpg" width="922" height="1143" alt="The new 480 VAC Magnalight substation from Larson Electronics is designed for installations where native distribution power supply isn’t available." title="The new 480 VAC Magnalight substation from Larson Electronics is designed for installations where native distribution power supply isn’t available." /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><h4>Generation</h4>
<p>Florida Gov. Rick Scott and Florida Senate President Mike Haridopolos were on hand to help <span class="boldred">Florida Power &amp; Light</span> unveil what FPL called the first hybrid solar power plant in the world—FPL’s Martin Next Generation Solar Energy Center. Spanning approximately 500 acres in western Martin County, Fla., the 75-MW hybrid facility connects a field of more than 190,000 solar thermal mirrors with an existing combined-cycle natural gas power plant to reduce fossil fuel consumption. FPL expects the project to displace combustion of approximately 41 billion cubic feet of natural gas and more than 600,000 barrels of oil—saving customers approximately $178 million in fuel costs over the facility’s estimated 30-year lifetime. The project began initial operations in November 2010.</p>
<p><span class="boldred">San Diego Gas &amp; Electric (SDG&amp;E)</span> and a subsidiary of <span class="boldred">CSOLAR Development</span>, a renewable energy company managed by Tenaska Solar Ventures, announced a 25-year contract for up to 150 MW of solar energy to be generated at the Imperial Solar Energy Center West’s proposed 1,057-acre concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) power facility being built near El Centro, Calif. The project will connect with SDG&amp;E’s Imperial Valley substation and its output will be transmitted over the utility’s Sunrise Powerlink transmission line, currently under construction and slated for completion in 2012. Also in connection with the contract, Soltec will build a new factory in the San Diego region to manufacture proprietary CPV modules. With an annual production capacity of 200 MW, the new manufacturing facility will be able to supply other projects in the desert Southwest.</p>
<p>Solar developer <span class="boldred">BlueChip Energy (BCE)</span> acquired land adjacent to two utility substations in Lake County, Fla., for the development of a $200 million, 40-MW capacity solar farm. The project will deploy an estimated 140,000 solar panels and will be built in stages. Solar panels and racking systems are expected to be provided by <span class="boldred">Advanced Solar Photonics</span> (ASP), the manufacturing subsidiary of BCE, for 75 percent of the project. Additional equity partners are expected to provide the remaining 25 percent of the modules. The company had originally planned to lease the Lake County property but later decided to purchase the land in order to enhance the “bankability” of the project. The power produced is intended to be sold locally and regionally under power purchase agreements.</p>
<p><span class="boldred">CanTex Energy</span> completed the second installment of payments to <span class="boldred">Wind Tex Energy</span> for the exclusive rights to lease an additional 30,000 acres (total of 56,000 acres) of leases to the Lynn and Lenorah wind projects totaling 400 MW of capacity. The company says it will apply for an interconnect agreement and use existing transmission line capacity as part of a power purchase agreement in the Southwest Power Pool (SPP). Both projects will be able to supply into ERCOT when the Central location of the competitive renewable energy zone (CREZ) transmission line is completed by early 2013, connecting at the Long Draw 345 Kv switching station in Borden County, Texas. The project financing will require $25 million pre-construction and $810 million in construction financing. Plans are to install 2.75 MW or 3.0 MW turbines. </p>
<p> </p>
<p><span class="boldred">Juhl Wind</span> completed the $42 million Adams Wind Project in Meeker County in west-central Minnesota. The project, which was announced in December 2009, includes 12 Alstom Eco 86 wind turbines, to provide about 20 MW of wind capacity. <span class="boldred">Xcel Energy</span> will buy energy produced by the Juhl Wind project under a 20-year agreement. The wind farm is owned by local residents and farmers.</p>
<p><span class="boldred">WindTamer Corp.’s</span> board of directors approved changing the name of the company to Arista Power, Inc. The name change is subject to stockholder approval at the Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be held on May 18, 2011. The company will continue to use the “WindTamer” brand name on its wind turbines. The company intends to apply for a change in its ticker symbol immediately following stockholder approval of the name change.</p>
<p><span class="boldred">U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu</span> offered a conditional $102 million loan guarantee to support the Record Hill wind project, which includes a 50.6-MW wind farm and an eight-mile transmission line and associated interconnection equipment near the town of Roxbury, Maine. Developed and managed by <span class="boldred">Wagner Wind Energy</span> of New Hampshire and <span class="boldred">Independence Wind</span> of Maine, Record Hill is sponsored by the Yale University Endowment fund. The facility will consist of 22 <span class="boldred">Siemens</span> SWT-2.3-93 turbines and new transmission lines to interconnect with Central Maine Power. The turbines will be installed with turbine load control (TLC) technology, a system of sensors and processing software that allows the turbines to continue to generate electricity under turbulent conditions, rather than be shut down completely. TLC is also expected to reduce wear-and-tear on the turbines, reduce operation and management costs, and preserve the lifetime of the turbine components.</p>
<p><span class="boldred">GE</span> introduced its 4.1-113 wind turbine, a 4-MW-class machine designed for offshore use. GE signed a contract to supply a 4.1-113 wind turbine, along with associated services, to Göteborg Energi for installation in the Gothenburg, Sweden, harbor in the second half of 2011. The project is supported by the Swedish Energy Agency. GE says the direct-drive technology provides a simple, reliable design with built-in redundancy to ensure reliability at sea. Also the modular design is intended to simplify in-situ repair and reduce the need for large repair vessels. The new turbine builds on GE’s 3.5 MW direct-drive design.</p>
<p><span class="boldred">The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory</span> (NREL) released its first call for proposals from wind industry companies interested in forming a partnership with NREL to test a multi-megawatt wind turbine drivetrain. The drivetrain will be tested in NREL’s new 5-MW drivetrain test facility, scheduled for completion by the end of June 2012.</p>
<p><span class="boldred">Siemens Energy’s Instrumentation</span>, Controls &amp; Electrical (IC&amp;E) Business Unit signed two new contracts for its plant-wide distributed control systems. Siemens will upgrade the existing control systems of five Oglethorpe Power Corp. (OPC) power plants in Georgia with the Siemens Power Plant Automation T3000 (SPPA-T3000) system. Additionally, Voith Hydro, Inc., sub-contractor for American Municipal Power (AMP), contracted Siemens to install and test its SPPA-E3000 electrical system at four new power houses of AMP’s 313-MW Ohio River project. The upgrades are scheduled to be implemented between March 2011 and March 2014.</p>
<p><span class="boldred">Columbia Power Technologies</span> deployed its first SeaRay wave-power prototype system in Puget Sound. The sea trials represent a milestone in moving from the pre-commercial stage toward commercial viability for wave power, which generates electricity from ocean swells. Late last year, Columbia Power secured a $2 million Series A private equity infusion from the Oregon Angel Fund, and plans another investment round in 2011.</p>
<h4>Metering</h4>
<p>Duke Energy chose Verizon Wireless to provide a telecommunications network for the Envision: Charlotte building efficiency project. Duke Energy will gather and aggregate energy usage data from about 70 participating buildings in Charlotte’s 1.94 square mile I-277 inner-belt loop. The information will then be streamed to large interactive lobby-level screens provided by Cisco. Building tenants will see the nearly real-time commercial energy consumption data for the community and suggested actions they can take to reduce their personal energy usage in the office.</p>
<p>DTE Energy plans to install an additional 350,000 electric meters to provide the backbone for its SmartCurrents program, which will allow electric customers to communicate with the company, provide detailed information about their energy usage and recognize power outages without customer input. DTE Energy has installed about 250,000 smart meters so far, and expects about 600,000 meters will be installed by early 2012.</p>
<p>The National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative (NRTC) entered a value-added reseller (VAR) agreement with Sensus. Through the partnership NRTC will offer Sensus smart grid technologies to its members including the FlexNet advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) system, smart meters, distribution automation and demand response solutions. In response to requests from co-op members for a wireless AMI solution, NRTC evaluated various technologies before partnering with Sensus.</p>
<p>SECO Energy selected Sensus as its smart grid technology provider. Sensus will provide the Florida cooperative its FlexNet AMI communications network and more than 172,000 electric meters equipped with remote connect and disconnect capabilities. SECO selected Sensus after a six-month pilot test of the FlexNet AMI network and 1,200 electric meters. SECO expects the smart grid program will help reduce the cost and staff time required for manual meter reads and will alert the utility about meter theft and tampering.</p>
<h4>Conservation &amp; Efficiency</h4>
<p><span class="boldred">Lockheed Martin</span> was selected to implement and manage the <span class="boldred">Con Edison</span> commercial and industrial (C&amp;I) energy efficiency programs. Con Edison promotes the program to C&amp;I customers in New York City and Westchester County.</p>
<p><span class="boldred">Servidyne</span> started work on an approximately $1.3 million energy efficiency project for <span class="boldred">Cobb County, Ga</span>. The project, which is being funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) through the energy efficiency and conservation block grant program, is expected to save Cobb County’s taxpayers at least $300,000 a year in avoided utility costs. The company expects to complete its project work by about September 2011.</p>
<p>The <span class="boldred">Montgomery County Correctional Facility</span> in Eagleville, Pa., awarded a contract to Honeywell to help upgrade its infrastructure and save an estimated $2.5 million in utility and operating costs. Honeywell says the $2.4-million energy conservation and building modernization program, which is supported by ARRA funds, will reduce water and energy consumption, and strengthen safety and security for staff and inmates at the 600-bed prison. Honeywell guarantees savings under a 10-year performance contract. Honeywell expects to complete the upgrades in the first half of 2011, with additional improvements planned to start by year’s end.</p>
<p><span class="boldred">Bluestone Energy Services</span> was selected by New Hampshire’s Pay for Performance (P4P) Program as an energy efficiency partner. The Pay for Performance Program is funded by proceeds from the auction of carbon allowances through New Hampshire’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). Bluestone Energy recently completed an energy conservation project for Stonewall Kitchen’s Rochester, N.H. distribution center. The project saved 520,000 kWh and earned over $50,000 in utility incentives from PSNH.</p>
<p><span class="boldred">Ameresco</span> signed an energy saving performance contract with Monroe County (Mississippi) school district for six schools and facilities totaling 368,000 square feet. Initiatives include boiler replacements, lighting upgrades and water conservation measures. An ARRA grant provided 25 percent of total costs associated with the performance contract, with the other 75 percent being funded through a tax-exempt lease and paid for out of guaranteed energy savings.</p>
<h4>EVs &amp; Storage</h4>
<p><span class="boldred">DTE Energy</span> selected <span class="boldred">SPX Service Solutions</span> to provide turnkey electric vehicle (EV) home charging installation services for up to 2,500 residential customers participating in the utility’s EV rate pilot program. The program offers lower rates for customers to charge EVs, as well as company-provided charging stations and funding toward installation. SPX is expected to manage all aspects of home charging, including home surveys, 240-volt charging station installations, permitting, inspections, coordination with the utility, and post-installation services.</p>
<p><span class="boldred">Reno Contracting</span> entered into a strategic alliance with <span class="boldred">Envision Solar</span> to build integrated solar parking arrays for EVs in locations throughout the Southwest. Plans call for a first project during 2Q 2011.</p>
<p><span class="boldred">Energetix Pnu Power</span> developed a range of compressed air batteries as direct replacements for conventional battery and flywheel power backup systems. Supplied as plug-and-play units from 3 kW to 200 kW, the batteries have been deployed by National Grid in the U.K. and United States. Energetix says the systems can be driven from industry standard compressed air cylinders with an auto compressor for recharging, or plant mains air supplies. Pnu Power has also developed a containerized backup power system using a compressed air battery and a diesel generator.</p>
<p><span class="boldred">Prudent Energy</span> received a grant from the <span class="boldred">California Public Utilities Commission</span> (CPUC) toward construction and operation of a Vanadium Redox battery energy storage system (VRB-ESS) with SunPower’s PV systems. The grant and construction of the system will be completed in cooperation with SunPower, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&amp;E), KEMA and Sandia National Laboratories. Prudent’s VRB-ESS energy storage system works similarly to a rechargeable fuel cell, where chemical energy is converted into electrical energy in a quick manner.</p>
<h4>Smart Grid and T&amp;D</h4>
<p><span class="boldred">Larson Electronics</span> introduced the Magnalight MGS-DC-30KVA-480-220-110, a heavy duty power distribution substation that converts single-phase or three-phase 480V AC electrical current to single-phase 120V AC and 240V AC. The substation is designed to supply current for operating equipment and lighting in areas where connection to native power is unavailable or not desired. This unit can be used to tap into 480V AC from a variety of sources including generators and direct grid power, which it then steps down to usable voltages, and includes a dedicated 480-volt feed through for connecting a welding station.</p>
<p><span class="boldred">Demand Response Coordinating Committee</span> (DRCC) is changing its membership structure to become a home for individuals that consider themselves DR and smart grid professionals. To reflect this change, the DRCC has changed its name to the Association for Demand Response &amp; Smart Grid (ADS).</p>
<p><span class="boldred">Infosys Technologies</span> and <span class="boldred">Oracle</span> completed a business transformation program incorporating the implementation of Oracle Utilities network management system at Seattle City Light, one of the nation’s largest municipally owned utilities. The Oracle system, selected in 2009, provides real-time information sharing to help Seattle City Light coordinate service restoration efforts.</p>
<p><span class="boldred">Elster</span> is working with <span class="boldred">Science Applications International Corp.</span> (SAIC) to deliver a comprehensive hosted smart grid solution that will empower utilities with a variety of advanced functionalities across electric, water and gas infrastructures. The full life-cycle offering will enable utility customers the opportunity to realize the benefits of smart grid as a service (SGaaS), such as demand response (DR), distribution automation (DA), meter data management (MDM), voltage conservation, transformer monitoring, EV charging and more. The joint solution will build on Elster’s EnergyAxis smart grid solution and SAIC’s Tier 3 SAS 70 Type II service.</p>
<p><span class="boldred">Progress Energy</span> selected <span class="boldred">IBM</span> as the lead systems integrator for the utility’s smart grid program. IBM will provide expertise in smart grid technologies; system planning, architecture, integration and implementation; business process design and development; and business analytics.</p>
<h4>M&amp;A</h4>
<p><span class="boldred">Alstom</span> acquired <span class="boldred">Utility Integration Solutions Inc.</span> (UISOL) of Santa Clara, California. UISOL, a systems integration company, develops and commercializes DRBizNet, a software platform for demand response management. UISOL will be a wholly-owned Alstom Grid subsidiary, maintaining its consulting and systems integration business lines, and will leverage Alstom’s worldwide presence to grow on international markets. Alstom Grid plans to invest in UISOL’s software division to expand its DRBizNet solution and meet growing customer requirements.</p>
<p><span class="boldred">DPL Inc.</span> purchased Chicago-based retail electricity supplier <span class="boldred">MC Squared Energy Services, LLC</span> (mc2), which serves approximately 2,000 customer accounts in northern Illinois. The transaction will be executed by DPL’s retail electric subsidiary, DPL Energy Resources (DPLER) as purchaser. Terms weren’t disclosed. DPLER markets electricity to commercial and business customers in Ohio.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><span class="boldred">TRC Companies</span> acquired privately-held <span class="boldred">Alexander Utility Engineering</span> (AUE) through a combination of cash, stock and subordinated debt. Headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, AUE is an engineering and design firm that provides a range of services to the electric utility and communications utility marketplaces. AUE’s revenue for 2010 was approximately $3 million. TRC expects the transaction to be accretive in fiscal 2011.</p>
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-article-category field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above clearfix"><h3 class="field-label">Category (Actual): </h3><ul class="links"><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-0"><a href="/article-categories/generation-markets">Generation &amp; Markets</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-1"><a href="/article-categories/td-grid">T&amp;D Grid</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-2"><a href="/article-categories/finance">Finance</a></li></ul></div><div class="field field-name-field-members-only field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Viewable to All?:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-article-featured field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Is Featured?:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-department field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above clearfix"><h3 class="field-label">Department: </h3><ul class="links"><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-0"><a href="/department/vendor-neutral">Vendor Neutral</a></li></ul></div><div class="field field-name-field-fortnightly-40 field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Is Fortnightly 40?:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-law-lawyers field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Is Law &amp; Lawyers:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above clearfix">
<div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div>
<div class="field-items">
<a href="/tags/advanced-solar-photonics">Advanced Solar Photonics</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/alexander-utility-engineering">Alexander Utility Engineering</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/alstom">Alstom</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/alstom-grid">Alstom Grid</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/ameresco">Ameresco</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/american-municipal-power">American Municipal Power</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/american-recovery-and-reinvestment-act">American Recovery and Reinvestment Act</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/ami">AMI</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/amp">AMP</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/arra">ARRA</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/bc">BC</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/bluechip-energy">BlueChip Energy</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/bluestone-energy-services">Bluestone Energy Services</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/california-public-utilities-commission">California Public Utilities Commission</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/cantex-energy">CanTex Energy</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/central-maine-power">Central Maine Power</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/cisco">Cisco</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/commission">Commission</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/con-edison">Con Edison</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/conservation">Conservation</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/cpuc">CPUC</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/cpv">CPV</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/crez">CREZ</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/cso">CSO</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/csolar-development">CSOLAR Development</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/dc">DC</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/department-energy">Department of Energy</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/dg">DG</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/dpl">DPL</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/dpl-inc">DPL Inc.</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/dr">DR</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/dte-energy">DTE Energy</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/duke-energy">Duke Energy</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/e3">E3</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/elster">Elster</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/energetix-pnu-power">Energetix Pnu Power</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/energy-secretary-steven-chu">Energy Secretary Steven Chu</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/energyaxis-0">EnergyAxis</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/envision-solar">Envision Solar</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/ercot">ERCOT</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/ev">EV</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/evs">EVs</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/ge">GE</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/honeywell">Honeywell</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/hydro">Hydro</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/ibm">IBM</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/imperial-valley">Imperial Valley</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/independence-wind">Independence Wind</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/infosys">Infosys</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/infosys-technologies">Infosys Technologies</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/integration">Integration</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/iso">ISO</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/juhl-wind">Juhl Wind</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/kema">KEMA</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/larson-electronics">Larson Electronics</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/lockheed">Lockheed</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/lockheed-martin">Lockheed Martin</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/mc-squared-energy-services">MC Squared Energy Services</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/mdm">MDM</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/montgomery-county-correctional-facility">Montgomery County Correctional Facility</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/national-grid">National Grid</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/national-renewable-energy-laboratory-0">National Renewable Energy Laboratory</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/national-rural-telecommunications-cooperative">National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/nrel-0">NREL</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/nrtc">NRTC</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/oracle">Oracle</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/oracle-utilities">Oracle Utilities</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/ot">OT</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/pacific-gas-and-electric">Pacific Gas and Electric</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/ppa">PPA</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/progress">Progress</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/progress-energy">Progress Energy</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/prudent-energy">Prudent Energy</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/pv">PV</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/pv-systems">PV systems</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/recovery">Recovery</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/regional-greenhouse-gas-initiative">Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/renewable">Renewable</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/renewable-energy">Renewable Energy</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/reno-contracting">Reno Contracting</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/rggi">RGGI</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/saic">SAIC</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/science-applications-international-corp">Science Applications International Corp</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/science-applications-international-corp-0">Science Applications International Corp.</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/seco-energy">SECO Energy</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/sensus">Sensus</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/servidyne">Servidyne</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/siemens">Siemens</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/siemens-energy">Siemens Energy</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/solar">Solar</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/solar-panels">solar panels</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/southwest-power-pool">Southwest Power Pool</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/spp">SPP</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/spx-service-solutions">SPX Service Solutions</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/steven-chu">Steven Chu</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/storage">storage</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/sunpower">SunPower</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/tenaska-solar-ventures">Tenaska Solar Ventures</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/trc">TRC</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/trc-companies">TRC Companies</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/us-department-energy">U.S. Department of Energy</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/us-energy-secretary-steven-chu">U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/uisol">UISOL</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/utility-integration-solutions">Utility Integration Solutions</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/verizon">Verizon</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/verizon-wireless">Verizon Wireless</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/wagner-wind-energy">Wagner Wind Energy</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/wind">Wind</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/wind-tex-energy">Wind Tex Energy</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/xcel-energy">Xcel Energy</a> </div>
</div>
Sun, 01 May 2011 04:00:00 +0000puradmin14112 at http://www.fortnightly.comThe Art of the Plausiblehttp://www.fortnightly.com/fortnightly/2011/04/art-plausible
<div class="field field-name-field-import-deck field-type-text-long field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Deck:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Prospects for clean energy legislation in 2011.</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-import-byline field-type-text-long field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Byline:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>James Y. Kerr II, et al.</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-import-bio field-type-text-long field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Author Bio:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><b>James Y. Kerr II</b> is a partner and co-chair of the energy and climate-change industry team at McGuire Woods LLP and McGuire Woods Consulting. Previously he was a commissioner on the North Carolina Utilities Commission, and served as president of NARUC (2007-2008). <b>Neal J. Cabral</b> and <b>Cameron Prell</b> are both senior counsel with McGuire Woods. <b>Brian D. Vanderbloemen</b> is vice president of federal public affairs with McGuire Woods Consulting.</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-import-volume field-type-node-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Magazine Volume:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Fortnightly Magazine - April 2011</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-import-image field-type-image field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Image:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://www.fortnightly.com/sites/default/files/1104-FEA1-Obama.jpg" width="1332" height="944" alt="“Instead of subsidizing yesterday’s energy, let’s invest in tomorrow’s.” - State of the Union Address, Jan. 25, 2011" title="“Instead of subsidizing yesterday’s energy, let’s invest in tomorrow’s.” - State of the Union Address, Jan. 25, 2011" /></div><div class="field-item odd"><img src="http://www.fortnightly.com/sites/default/files/1104-FEA1-Bingaman.jpg" width="1474" height="1082" alt="“Without clean energy market pull, there will not be the incentive to manufacture and deploy these technologies here.” - Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), Chairman of Senate Energy &amp; Natural Resources Committee" title="“Without clean energy market pull, there will not be the incentive to manufacture and deploy these technologies here.” - Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), Chairman of Senate Energy &amp; Natural Resources Committee" /></div><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://www.fortnightly.com/sites/default/files/1104-FEA1-Upton.jpg" width="1338" height="930" alt="“We’ll have a significant share of our auto fleet being electric ... which [is] why we’ll need 30 to 40 percent more electricity.” - Fred Upton (R-Mich.), Chairman of House Energy &amp; Commerce Committee" title="“We’ll have a significant share of our auto fleet being electric ... which [is] why we’ll need 30 to 40 percent more electricity.” - Fred Upton (R-Mich.), Chairman of House Energy &amp; Commerce Committee" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Prior to the president’s state of the union address in late January, Washington was already abuzz over whether the new Congress would tackle energy legislation, which members might tackle it, and how.</p>
<p>The new Congress, or at least the Senate, began to consider various alternative energy policies right away. Those efforts got a strong boost from President Obama’s address. In the wake of last year’s stalemate in Congress over an economy-wide greenhouse gas (GHG) cap-and-trade system, the Obama administration has seemingly made passage of a clean energy standard<sub>1</sub> (CES) one of its main 2011 legislative goals. Events are moving rapidly, and issues such as the unfolding drama over the fate of Japan’s damaged nuclear power plants or the continuing impasse on the budget might overtake some of the discussion, but substantial changes could result if Congress and the administration reach a workable compromise on energy and environmental legislation.</p>
<p><b>Prioritizing Clean Energy </b></p>
<p>Prior to the state-of-the-union (SOTU) address, the administration’s energy legislation priorities were in some doubt. The president had expressed a desire to address climate and clean energy legislation in relatively ambiguous “chunks,” one of which could be a CES. Since this Congress seems likely to appropriate little or no new money to support clean energy programs, a CES might be seen by the administration as one of the only available options to advance Obama’s clean energy agenda. There could also be a sense of urgency at the White House to find something to help fill the void left by the failure to pass comprehensive climate change legislation in the previous Congress.</p>
<p>The president’s call at the SOTU for “80 percent of America’s electricity” to come from “clean energy sources” by 2035 sent a clear message: the administration wants a CES, and by addressing this policy initiative and some specifics about it (in addition to the specific goals and timelines, it will include “clean coal,” nuclear energy and natural gas), the president has clearly signaled his preference. While such prominent inclusion of a CES in the speech suggested a new activist posture on the part of the White House in developing that legislation, the White House hasn’t yet followed up with any public proposals. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the administration is evaluating the details of what a CES would contain, noting that preliminary modeling indicates “a clean energy standard will not automatically say everything goes to natural gas or everything goes to nuclear or everything goes to renewables.”<sub>2</sub> Hence, it remains possible that the administration will indeed try to lead this effort, and not follow the hands-off approach used in both the health-care and climate legislation debates.</p>
<p>Primary attention in the Senate will now turn to Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), who has long favored a renewable electricity standard (RES) over a CES, but has pledged to work with the White House on crafting a CES.<sub>3</sub> Notably, even before the president’s state-of-the-union address, two prominent Republican senators announced independent plans to consider crafting CES legislation. Right after the New Year, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R- S.C.) pledged to introduce a CES, and Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), who included a CES in energy legislation he introduced last year, also announced in January that he would consider including a CES in energy legislation he plans to introduce this year. In early February, Lugar reiterated that while a bill is many weeks away, a CES remains under consideration.<sub>4</sub></p>
<p>In the House, energy legislation signals are decidedly more muted, if not altogether absent. The Republican response to the state of the union, delivered by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Budget Committee, suggests that there may be little desire in the House to move on a CES or any other new federal mandate. House Republicans may be inclined at this juncture to focus on a very narrow suite of issues (<i>e.g., </i>spending cuts, health-care legislation reform or repeal, and regulatory oversight and reform). House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R-Texas) declared in a recent editorial, “[t]he idea of a government-approved list of required electricity sources is problematic in any event, but the inclusion of nuclear, gas and coal is an empty promise so long as other regulations preclude these sources from being utilized.”<sub>5</sub> In addition he further vowed to gather information to evaluate “the burden of regulation on energy-using industries and jobs” and to offer “legislative fixes where appropriate to meet our energy demands of the future.” Based on these and other remarks, it’s not at all clear that a CES would be in play in the House this year.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the House might consider other pieces of legislation related to energy and the environment that are consistent with Congressman Upton’s expressed concerns about regulatory burdens on the energy sector. These issues, if taken up, might ultimately become potential drivers for House consideration of a CES. Two of those issues concern the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) authority to regulate GHGs under the existing Clean Air Act (CAA) and a suite of regulations EPA has proposed (or is preparing) that will significantly affect electric utilities.</p>
<p>As to the first, the House Energy &amp; Commerce power subcommittee already has passed legislation that would eliminate EPA’s authority to regulate GHGs under the CAA, and at this writing the measure was expected to pass the full House. In the Senate, Environment and Public Works Committee ranking member James Inhofe (R-Okla.) introduced a similar companion bill. In addition, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) has introduced legislation permanently barring all federal agencies from regulating GHGs under a variety of federal statutes, while Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) plans to introduce legislation staying part of EPA’s GHG authority for two years.</p>
<p>However, the clear threat of a presidential veto looms over all such legislation. So the obvious question becomes whether an offer by the administration to sign such legislation would put a CES in play in the House. While expressing no opinion on the issue, Sen. Graham doesn’t see a ban on EPA regulation of GHGs and a CES “as inconsistent,” adding that “we need some logical energy policy to replace the EPA.”<sub>6</sub></p>
<p><b>EPA Train Wreck </b></p>
<p>The second piece of possible (but far less certain) energy- and environmental-related legislation the House might consider would seek to address elements of what some lawmakers have called the EPA “train wreck.” This issue, detailed in a variety of reports including one published by the North American Electric Reliability Corp.,<sub>7</sub> describes a series of EPA regulations slated to be finalized in the next two years or so that will address air emissions from power plants—<i>e.g.,</i> the electric generating utility Maximum Available Control Technology (MACT rule) covering mercury and other air toxics such as acid gases; NOx and SOx emissions standards (known as the Transport Rule); coal-ash handling and disposal regulations; cooling water intake requirements (the Clean Water Act 316(b) rule); and tighter ambient air quality standards for ozone and particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter.</p>
<p>The suite of EPA regulations is expected to require substantial capital investment in—or retirement of—coal-fired power plants; specifics will depend on the final requirements of the individual rules. One study from last year projected the regulations will impose up to $231 billion in compliance or replacement power costs on the electric power industry (and ratepayers) by 2017, and shutter nearly 75 GW of coal-fired capacity.<sub>8</sub></p>
<p>Utility companies will need to make key compliance decisions in a relatively short period of time, since the new EPA regulations are expected to require compliance in the 2015 through 2018 time frame. These retrofit-or-retire decisions will also have to be made in the face of great uncertainty, including what types of generation should replace the retired coal-fired units (<i>e.g.,</i> will there be a CES , and what generating sources will be eligible), and what will be the actual economic life of plants that are retrofitted.</p>
<p>As a consequence, coal-fired power generators would welcome Congressional measures to mitigate the timing or other aspects of new EPA regulations to allow, at minimum, an orderly transition. Such measures also might make sense from an overall energy policy perspective. While no specifics have been announced in the House, Chairman Upton pledged to consider appropriate legislative fixes to address what he views as costly overregulation.</p>
<p>The Senate has made previous attempts at addressing some of these broader EPA issues legislatively. Last Congress, Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) collaborated to craft a “three-pollutant” bill that would address NOx, SOx and mercury emissions from power plants, and to resolve a few other air quality issues associated with the new EPA regulations, such as emissions trading. Carper recently indicated he isn’t actively working on a new three-pollutant bill, but remains open to the possibility if enough participants in the power sector can agree on what it should contain.<sub>9</sub> Another possible approach to addressing the situation was included by Sen. Lugar in his CES proposal from last year, which adopted a 2018 retirement “glide path” option available to utility units that would otherwise have to shut down earlier to comply with expected new EPA requirements.</p>
<p>If any of these legislative scenarios come to pass—and that is a very big “if”—the administration essentially would have to decide whether to veto them or be willing to trade, in exchange for a CES, a prohibition on EPA’s authority to regulate GHGs under the CAA, and perhaps some legislative adjustments to elements of EPA’s power plant regulations or other regulatory reforms related to domestic energy production. While it’s unclear whether the administration has already decided at some level to proceed down that path if necessary, President Obama’s SOTU didn’t include, as some wanted, a strong endorsement of EPA’s air regulatory programs or its GHG permitting rules. A CES deal, and the resulting GHG emission reductions, could also lessen the administration’s need for EPA’s GHG regulatory authority to achieve GHG reductions. Finally, the administration is keenly aware that it can’t lose every coal state and win re-election, and it might decide that, on balance, a CES mandate and a ban on EPA’s GHG regulatory authority helps its coal-state politics.</p>
<p>While some Senate Democrats have already publically disclaimed any interest in such a compromise, it is still early, and the Obama administration might want a CES. But federal energy politics are always more complex than the simple binary partisan differences that make the headlines. While politics is the art of the possible, a grand compromise between the administration and Congress on a CES and GHG and power plant regulations seems merely plausible.</p>
<p><b>Energy Policy Possibilities </b></p>
<p>Since energy policy issues are generating at least some legislative interest, it seems useful to consider the sorts of specific pieces that might be in play. Most of these can be found in legislation introduced last term or, with respect to a GHG permitting ban, under consideration by Congress this term. The primary pieces of legislation stem from the concepts (but not necessarily the specifics) of: 1) the different CES proposals introduced by Lugar and Graham last Congress; 2) a GHG moratorium or bar as introduced in the House and Senate this year; and 3) the three-pollutant bill (NOx, SOx and mercury) introduced by Carper and Alexander last year. These pieces of proposed legislation have all sought to address in some fashion clean and renewable energy, EPA GHG regulation and elements of the forthcoming EPA power plant regulations.</p>
<p>• <i>CES Basics:</i> The idea for a CES, which is essentially a renewable electricity standard that includes additional “clean” sources like nuclear, carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) or energy efficiency, isn’t new in any respect. It’s a technology-based performance standard—<i>i.e.,</i> compliance must come from the limited suite of technologies or fuels selected. At the same time, it retains elements of a market-oriented approach, because it typically provides a suite of compliance choices, and lets the market pick among them. It also typically provides a trading scheme that allows purchase and sale of clean energy credits (CLEC) for compliance. Thus, regulated entities have discretion within the larger mandate to choose their own methods of compliance. These flexibilities both mitigate command-and-control inefficiencies, and indirectly subsidize the mandated technologies by requiring their use. A CES also typically contains a price ceiling in the form of an alternative compliance payment (ACP), to provide a degree of cost certainty and ratepayer protection. The ACP thereby sets the price by which regulated entities can buy their way out of physical compliance.</p>
<p>CES issues generally break down into six major categories: 1) time frames and percentage of clean power requirements; 2) what energy sources or other actions qualify; 3) preferences or disincentives for particular sources, if any; 4) CLEC trading regime design and structure; 5) how energy efficiency is treated—<i>e.g.,</i> the same as any other qualifying technology, or separately with, for example, a nested obligation and a different trading regime; and 6) ACP pricing and revenue use.</p>
<p>In terms of time frames and percentages, a CES will mandate that a certain percentage of power from each covered entity (measured in kilowatt- or megawatt-hours) be generated from specified clean sources. The specified percentage of clean power required increases over time.</p>
<p>When evaluating the overall goals and timing of a CES, it’s important to make practical apples-to-apples comparisons. For example, while the president has called for an 80 percent standard by 2035, he includes natural gas, nuclear and CCS as eligible. About 47 percent of current generation is from nuclear, natural gas and renewables, so Obama’s clean energy requirement would require an additional 33 percent of power generation to come from “new” clean energy by 2035. This proposal is therefore relatively different from Graham’s 2010 proposal of 35 percent of new clean energy by 2035 and Lugar’s 2010 proposal for 30 percent of new clean energy by 2035, where neither of those proposals included gas.<sub>10</sub></p>
<p>Importantly, however, while the Lugar and Graham CES proposals were based on a certain percentage of new, qualifying energy resources measured from the initial compliance year of the legislation, President Obama’s 80 percent by 2035 suggests that his metric won’t be “new” qualifying clean energy sources, but rather “total” qualifying sources. Under this metric, while the country in aggregate might be at 47 percent of clean energy in the starting year of the legislation, individual utilities won’t be, with some having much larger current clean energy fleets than others. To normalize this situation, and place individual utilities in compliance in the starting year, huge amounts of clean energy credits might need to be bought and sold across the country in a truing-up exercise—which arguably would be pointless and costly; pointless because it wouldn’t change the actual generation mix; costly because it would impose high up-front compliance costs on some regions of the country, and provide a windfall of credit dollars to others. Therefore, while President Obama’s proposal for adding 33 percent of new clean energy by 2035 might be accepted, it’s unlikely his metric of “total” clean energy will.</p>
<p>In addition to absolute percentage requirements, ramp rates (how fast the percentages go up) for new clean energy will be a hotly debated issue. Slower initial ramp rates would tend to provide better ratepayer mitigation, while faster initial ramp rates would tend to promote technologies that can be developed quickly, and have little technology risk associated with them—<i>e.g.,</i> gas or some renewables. In turn, larger medium-term ramp rates might tend to promote cost-intensive clean energy sources such as nuclear and coal. For context, the Graham CES bill started at 13 percent for the first two years, increased nominally by another 2 percent for the next five years, then jumped an additional 5 percent starting in 2020, and generally increased 5 percent every five years after that.</p>
<p>In addition, banking and borrowing provisions can have an effect on the ultimate generation mix that’s constructed. Banking provisions allow sources to over-comply in certain years and “bank” the extra credits for use in later years. An unrestricted banking mechanism, such as in the Graham bill, would tend to promote lower-cost solutions, but might also generate an early overbuild and banking of credits from well-known clean energy sources such as gas or renewables in order to delay the need to invest in more cost-intensive technologies such as nuclear or CCS. In turn, structured borrowing mechanisms could allow developers to take credit early for long lead-time clean energy technologies, such as nuclear or CCS, or technologies such as smart grids, which might produce greater savings further in the future. Under the Graham legislation, for example, if a company had a project under construction, it could petition to pull forward an amount of credits expected from the facility when it’s complete for current compliance use. Graham’s borrowing mechanism was, however, limited to a three-year window. A longer window might better promote long lead-time technologies such as nuclear or CCS—<i>e.g.,</i> a ratable portion of the credits expected from a nuclear power plant to be completed in 10 years may be used for compliance in each of the 10 years prior to completion of the plant.</p>
<p>• <i>Qualifying Sources:</i> The primary CES debate will center on what resources qualify for compliance. Under the Lugar bill, qualifying clean energy sources included a broad array of renewable energy and energy efficiency; coal with 80 percent GHG sequestration, storage or reuse; and new nuclear.<sub>11</sub> Clean energy sources under the Graham bill included renewable energy; coal with 65 percent GHG sequestration; biomass; energy efficiency; and new nuclear generation.<sub>12</sub> Both bills tended to allow power generation from methane (coal-seam methane, landfill gas and biogas from such sources as sewage sludge) to qualify. Obama’s proposal would add natural gas to this mix.</p>
<p>In addition to these perhaps-more-traditional clean energy sources, Graham would allow some credit for retirement of coal facilities, while Lugar would allow credit for power plant efficiency improvements. Notably, the Lugar provisions on power plant efficiency improvements would use annual CO<sub>2</sub> emissions as a metric—requiring that annual CO<sub>2</sub> emissions don’t increase as a result of the efficiency improvements—but wouldn’t allow use of efficiency improvements on a megawatt-hour basis. Thus, some power plant efficiency improvements, such as turbine projects that might result in lower CO<sub>2</sub> emission rates<i> </i>but higher annual emissions, wouldn’t be allowed. As well, new high efficiency supercritical coal plants didn’t qualify under the legislation,<sub>13</sub> nor did other utility power sources such as pumped storage.</p>
<p>In addition, neither bill specifically allows for offsets—such as domestic agriculture or international deforestation credits. Notably, there’s nothing obviously inconsistent with the use of offsets under a clean energy standard since incremental biomass growth provides an offset of greenhouse gas emissions; the carbon reduction that makes biomass power clean doesn’t come from the combustion of biomass, which produces carbon, but rather from sustainable forestry practices in the designated fuel shed. Hence, use of domestic and international GHG offsets might become part of the CES debate.</p>
<p>In selecting eligible clean energy resources, there are both policy drivers, and political and cost drivers. In addition to the issues affecting how to define qualifying sources, time frames and percentage requirements, others include whether adding natural gas will crowd out other technologies; whether credit should be given for retirement of coal units; and whether both provisions would ease the transition toward, and costs of, achieving the clean energy mandate.</p>
<p>The political issues are relatively straightforward and are largely regional.</p>
<p>One reason there’s no national RES in place today is because thus far it has been a state-level decision, and states in the Southeast and lower Midwest have far fewer renewable resources available to them than other states, and therefore will incur higher costs to comply—or will have to send ratepayer money to other states to buy credits. Hence, selecting a broader array of qualifying clean technologies is intended, in part, to mitigate these regional disparities.</p>
<p>In addition, coal-state legislators (Republican and Democrat alike) require measures to promote clean coal and ease the transition to a cleaner coal future. Thus, the addition of clean coal technologies, which could include, in addition to CCS, credit for coal plant retirements and credit for coal plant efficiency upgrades, might be necessary to address these politics. In addition, many Republicans and a number of moderate Democrats have voiced strong support for nuclear—a position that might be revisited after the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant incident in Japan—so including that technology, as well as other nuclear incentives, might also help address some of these issues.</p>
<p>Indeed, from a broader perspective, it would seem that a big tent of qualifying technologies would have political advantages because everybody gets something. In addition, the bigger the tent, the less likely it will be that the legislation itself picks winners and losers, since the market will select the ultimate mix of technologies. However, federal energy politics isn’t so simple. Many Democrats will want to see strong renewable legislation, while proponents of capital intensive technologies such as nuclear or CCS will be concerned that a big tent will include so many easier technologies that the capital-intensive technologies will never get built.</p>
<p>• <i>Preferences &amp; Disincentives:</i> Once qualifying technologies are selected, the real debate will be over incentives and disincentives within the selected technologies. Historically, using state RPS legislation as a guide, political or policy preferences between competing eligible or qualifying technologies generally haven’t been handled with outright exclusion, but by a series of economic kickers or set-aside minimum mandates within the overall scheme. Under this approach, everything plausibly clean can qualify, but preferences or disincentives for particular sources are added to address favored outcomes.</p>
<p>Based on state RPS experience, a few key program design issues have tended to emerge: tiered classification; set-asides and carve-outs; and kickers, adders and multipliers.</p>
<p>With tiered classification, eligible resources can be placed into different tiers that provide differing economic incentives, different time frames, or minimum or maximum requirements for different tiers. Thus, an economic tier system would place all resources into one of three tiers, and provide a different amount of credit or compliance mandate for each tier. For example, tier 1 may be worth 1.5 credits, tier 2 worth 1 credit and tier 3 worth 0.5 credits. By way of example, Graham’s bill used a tiered system for allocating credits to biomass, with three increasing levels of output efficiency providing three different amounts of credits.</p>
<p>Set-asides and carve-outs identify one or more qualifying resources for separate treatment. The separate treatment is either an incentive or a disincentive. It might be a minimum requirement (a set aside) of the overall mandate as having to come from such set-aside resources. Some states require a certain percentage of the overall state RES goal to come from solar. Or it could be a carve out, that limits the amount of a particular technology that can be used—<i>e.g.,</i> lawmakers could address a restriction on gas by placing a 50 percent cap on natural gas usage, which would be a carve out that ensures natural gas generation is never more than 50 percent of the overall CES portfolio. By contrast, set-asides mandate a minimum percentage of certain technologies. These can be particularly useful for high-cost or high-uncertainty technologies such as CCS. Thus, if 10 percent of the overall CES mandate had to come from CCS by 2025, for example, the result would be the construction of a few CCS facilities (equal to at least 10 percent of the CES mandate), and the purchase of CLECs generated by these facilities from complying entities across the county. Similarly, a set-aside for traditional renewables would ensure some minimum amount of the CES comes from those resources.</p>
<p>Credit kickers and adders provide another way to place a premium value on one or more types of qualifying resources. A kicker would establish, for example, that for every 1 kWh of energy produced by a qualifying kicker source, the developer receives 1+ credit to use or sell. The Graham CES included kickers for advanced coal generation and efficient biomass. Kickers are similar to economic incentive-based tiers, in that both provide extra credits for specified sources. However, tiers usually set up broad categories of qualifying sources—<i>i.e.,</i> all qualifying sources are placed into one of three tiers—whereas kickers tend to be more surgical and source specific.</p>
<p>Based on state experience with RES requirements, a federal CES will likely include a lively debate on appropriate kickers, incentives, carve outs, and set-asides. To some degree, use of these mechanisms explicitly picks winners and losers within the universe of qualifying resources. However, it’s arguably better to use incentive and disincentive mechanisms to adjust the value of various technologies than it is to exclude technologies altogether. In other words, the selection of what qualifies as “clean” in the first place is far more disruptive in picking winners and losers than is allowing more technologies to qualify, and adjusting their value. Thus, if qualifying a broad range of technologies might allow one (<i>e.g.,</i> gas) to dominate, or ensure others don’t get built (<i>e.g.,</i> nuclear or CCS), it might be less disruptive and more market-oriented to include all of them, and address diversity priorities in set-asides or kickers.</p>
<p>Note that tiers or kickers provide economic incentives for particular sources, but guarantee no particular result, while set-asides, carve outs and caps ensure particular results.</p>
<p>• <i>Credit Market Design:</i> Generally a CES will establish a national market in CLECs to ensure, in the words of the Graham bill, “a transparent national market for the sale or trade of clean energy credit and energy efficiency credits.” Both Lugar and Graham direct the establishment of a national CLEC market, and authorized the DOE to delegate administration to a market making or regional entity, such as a regional transmission organization like the PJM Interconnection.</p>
<p>How regional or existing state renewable programs and their credits are treated is also an issue for debate. CES proposals have attempted to coordinate the federal CES with, and not preempt, state RES requirements that allow for the same types of clean energy resources for compliance. For example, the Lugar bill doesn’t preempt state RES programs, but rather provides each utility subject to a state RES with an equal number of federal CLECs, to the extent it complies with state RES standards using the same types of qualifying energy as are allowed under the federal CES.</p>
<p>However, the result of non-preemption of state RES programs can require utilities to comply with two different standards, when the time frames, percentages or allowable energy sources in the federal CES and state RES programs don’t sufficiently overlap. Non-preemption would also allow states to effectively dictate, if they chose, the sources of clean energy that will actually be used in the state to comply with the federal CES. For example, if a 10 percent state RES only allows compliance by using traditional renewables, then compliance with a 10 percent federal CES also allowing use of traditional renewables as well as other sources would be met in that state only with traditional renewables. Consequently, the issue of federal preemption of, or coordination with, state renewable programs is expected to be a hotly debated one.</p>
<p>• <i>Energy Efficiency:</i> CES proposals can treat energy efficiency in different ways. Some include a minimum energy efficiency carve-out within the CES, effectively establishing a nested energy efficiency program, where energy efficiency credits can be used for both mandates, while others simply allow, sometimes with caps, CES requirements to be met with energy efficiency credits.</p>
<p>Both Lugar and Graham allowed energy efficiency simply to be a compliance option of the overall CES, rather than a parallel portfolio mandate. Lugar’s bill restricted energy efficiency trading, by stipulating that a utility with excess energy efficiency credits could only sell or transfer those credits to entities in-state. In turn, the Graham bill capped use of energy efficiency credits, by allocating them separately from clean energy credits and limiting their use to 25 percent of a utility’s compliance obligation.</p>
<p>• <i>ACP and Cost Recovery:</i> An ACP fills several roles. It provides a price ceiling for a command-and-control program to address regional resource differences and mitigate ratepayer exposure, and it provides a long-term price signal for clean energy developers. The ACP in Lugar’s bill was 5 cents per kilowatt hour, while the Graham ACP was set at 3.5 cents/kWh, with both adjusted for inflation.</p>
<p>A key issue with the ACP is deciding how ACP payments are to be used. In order to ensure cost neutrality, one approach is to send some or all of that revenue to the federal government, although that would inevitably result in a large wealth transfer from, primarily, resource-poor states that find the ACP option to be most cost effective. However, the seemingly more popular approach is to return all or most revenues to the state whose ratepayers incurred the ACP costs. For example, under Lugar, the ACP monies would be paid to the power company’s states, and states were directed to use such funds to increase clean energy production and offset ratepayer impacts.</p>
<p><b>Environmental Options </b></p>
<p>Republicans and a number of Democrats are interested in addressing EPA’s authority to regulate GHG emissions under the CAA. EPA’s permitting program for new and modified sources emitting GHGs above certain thresholds, and requiring application of still-undefined Best Available Control Technology, began on Jan. 2, 2011. EPA has also announced plans to begin issuing GHG performance standards under Section 111 of the Clean Air Act for new and existing stationary source categories such as power plants this summer, with final regulations expected beginning in 2012.</p>
<p>There are only a few issues associated with potential legislation to address EPA’s authority to regulate GHGs under the CAA. Republicans are seeking to permanently bar EPA from regulating GHGs under the CAA, and some are also seeking to bar GHG issues from entering federal policymaking through other mechanisms such as the National Environmental Policy Act. In turn, many of the Democrats supporting such legislation are seeking only a two-year stay of EPA’s GHG regulatory authority under the CAA. However, delay doesn’t really resolve the underlying issues.</p>
<p>Industry, environmental groups, members of Congress and the past two administrations have all said over the years that addressing power plant emissions with a comprehensive multi-pollutant legislative program would be useful, although there has been no agreement on the specifics.</p>
<p>In recent months, a number of groups have analyzed the potential impacts of implementation of EPA’s Transport rule, the utility MACT rule, and, in some cases, a coal ash rule and a 316(b) cooling water intake rule. The results of estimated impacts have varied, with the analyses predicting shutdowns of between 20 GW and 75 GW of largely coal-fired generation by 2015-2018; dates vary because of uncertainty about final compliance time frames for the rules.<sub>14</sub> As a result, there’s some concern that a large number of coal plant retirements during uncertain but near-term time frames will be disorderly, perhaps threaten reliability, and leave little time to plan for and construct replacement generating facilities.</p>
<p>To the extent Congress seriously entertains a CES in the near future, some industry observers have argued that it would make sense to both define what types of generating resources should replace those expected to be shut down, and to establish a firm and certain legislative schedule for rule compliance to ensure an orderly transition. In the absence of legislative action, the default replacement option for most of the retired coal capacity will be gas, since prices are generally low for now, and gas-fired generating facilities can often be built more quickly than other alternatives. Hence, there are some policy reasons to consider addressing the EPA power plant regulations, and there appears to be some recent political interest in doing so as well.</p>
<p>While the specifics of any legislative proposals remain very uncertain, legislation from last Congress offers two different approaches. First, as noted, Lugar’s CES provided, in effect, a short-term exemption from compliance with most of the expected EPA power plant regulations for coal units that agree to shut down by the end of 2018. That approach, in essence, offers an opt-out for units that will retire, would establish planning certainty with respect to time frames, and promotes an orderly transition. It doesn’t, however, address any of the underlying regulatory requirements, or the cost or time-frame impacts on units that will comply.</p>
<p>In contrast, legislation introduced last year by Carper and Alexander (S. 2995) did attempt to address some of the underlying requirements of the new EPA regulations by establishing new and tighter NOx and SOx caps, compared to the Transport Rule, that would be phased in over time, and reinstating the agency’s authority to apply the regulations through unfettered interstate trading after a federal district court circumscribed that authority in 2008.<sub>15</sub></p>
<p>In addition, the legislation would establish a specific standard for mercury—one of the hazardous air pollutants EPA will address in its upcoming utility MACT rule. However, this legislation was relatively limited, and didn’t address key cost drivers in the new EPA regulations, including MACT for pollutants other than mercury. Under this model, legislation essentially would seek to replace either the regulatory requirements or timelines of the Transport Rule and the utility MACT rule (if broadened to cover other pollutants such as acid gases that are driving expected coal plant shutdowns), and perhaps other rules as well, including coal ash and 316(b). This approach probably offers the best opportunity for an orderly transition to a cleaner generation fleet, and would provide greater certainty as to requirements and time frames. However, many Democrats likely will oppose any legislation that makes the expected EPA rules less stringent. Hence, it remains very uncertain whether such legislation will be entertained, or whether the Obama administration will agree to negotiate the issues.</p>
<p><b>Room for Compromise </b></p>
<p>While prospects for agreement on any significant, energy legislative package seemed dim following the November elections, recent events suggest that prediction may have changed, if only a little. Most notably, the administration’s decision to vocally push for a CES gave new life to that possibility. The Senate has long been open to the possibility of a CES, although that body has never agreed upon specifics. The House, on the other hand, seems very disinclined to adopt a new, broad and expensive federal mandate.</p>
<p>However, the juxtaposition of that sentiment with the strong desire in the House to eliminate EPA’s authority to regulate GHGs under the CAA, and to address perceived overregulation of the energy sector—positions generally opposed by the administration—provide, at least conceptually, room for bargaining.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><b>Endnotes: </b></p>
<p>1. A “combined energy standard,” or “clean energy standard” (both a CES), is a mandate that electric power companies provide a certain defined (and increasing) percentage of power from whatever energy sources are defined as clean by the legislation. It largely functions like a renewable energy standard, but differs from one primarily based on the addition of other qualifying energy sources beyond traditional renewables like wind or solar.</p>
<p>2. Katie Howell, “Reid Confident Bingaman, Murkowski can craft CES,” <i>E&amp;E News PM</i>, Feb. 16, 2011.</p>
<p>3. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, “Other World Powers Out Ahead on Energy,” <i>The Hill</i>, Feb. 14, 2011.</p>
<p>4. See Katie Howell and Jean Chemnick, “Lugar Preparing Bill that Could Include CES,” <i>Environment &amp; Energy Daily,</i> Feb. 11, 2011.</p>
<p>5. Rep. Fred Upton, “Government’s Red Tape Tangles Up Fuel Sources Right in our Backyard,” <i>The Hill</i>, Feb. 14, 2011.</p>
<p>6. Jean Chemnick, “Graham Weighs Legislative Strategy on Energy, Climate,” <i>E&amp;E News PM</i>, Jan. 28, 2011.</p>
<p>7. North American Electric Reliability Corp., <a href="http://www.nerc.com/files/EPA_Scenario_Final.pdf" target="_blank">2010 Special Reliability Scenario Assessment: Resource Adequacy Impacts of Potential U.S. Environmental Regulation</a>, October 2010.</p>
<p>8. <a href="http://www.icfi.com/Publications/pubs-category.asp?cid=4" target="_blank">EPA Regulations, Plant Retirements, and Impacts on Power Plant Valuation Webinar</a>, ICF Publications, October, 2010.</p>
<p>9. Anthony Lacey, “Carper Puts Onus on Utilities to Unite on Push for ‘Multipollutant’ Bill,” <i>Inside EPA</i>, Feb. 14, 2011.</p>
<p>10. Both Senate proposals ultimately reached 50 percent of new clean energy by 2050.</p>
<p>11. These diverse energy sources would have included advanced coal generation, biomass, coal mine methane, end-user energy efficiency, efficiency savings in power generation, geothermal energy, landfill and biogas, marine and hydrokinetic energy, qualified hydropower (<i>i.e.</i>, incremental capacity or efficiency improvements made up to three years prior to enactment), qualified nuclear (<i>i.e.</i>, placed in service on or after date of enactment), solar, waste-to-energy, wind, and any other energy source that results in at least an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to average emissions in the prior year from “freely emitting sources.” See, <i>e.g.</i>, <i>Practical Energy and Climate Plan Act of 2010</i>, S. 3464, as introduced by Sens. Richard Lugar, Lindsay Graham, and Lisa Murkowski on June 9, 2010.</p>
<p>12. The Graham legislation defined “clean energy” to include electric energy generated at a facility (including a distributed generation facility) from: A) solar, wind, geothermal, or ocean energy; B) biomass (including algae); C) landfill gas; D) qualified hydropower; E) marine and hydrokinetic; F) incremental geothermal production; G) coal-mine methane; H) qualified waste-to-energy; I) qualified nuclear energy; J) advanced coal generation; K) eligible retired fossil fuel generation (retiring before 2015); and L) any other clean energy source based on innovative technology certified by DOE Secretary.</p>
<p>13. Permitting new clean generation such as biomass, power plant turbine projects, and new supercritical coal plants will be more difficult if EPA retains its GHG permitting authority for new sources, and applies BACT for GHGs to those sources under its New Source Review program. It would also seem to be incongruous to require GHG permitting for sources intended to meet the requirements of a clean energy mandate. It might be appropriate to address these permitting issues in any CES if GHG regulatory authority is retained.</p>
<p>14. The Brattle Group, <i>Potential Coal Plant Retirements Under Emerging Environmental Regulations</i>, Dec. 8, 2010; the chart at p. 11 summarizes the results of modeled plant shutdowns presented by a variety or organizations, including NERC.</p>
<p>15. <i>North Carolina v. EPA</i> 531 F.3d 896 (D.C. Cir. 2008).</p>
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Fri, 01 Apr 2011 04:00:00 +0000puradmin14072 at http://www.fortnightly.comVendor Neutralhttp://www.fortnightly.com/fortnightly/2011/01/vendor-neutral
<div class="field field-name-field-import-deck field-type-text-long field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Deck:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-import-byline field-type-text-long field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Byline:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-import-category field-type-text field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Category:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Vendor Neutral</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-import-bio field-type-text-long field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Author Bio:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-import-volume field-type-node-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Magazine Volume:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Fortnightly Magazine - January 2011</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Burbank Water and Power selects Tropos Networks for smart grid project, Survalent Technology installs SCADA system for Pearl River Valley Electric Power Association, Gemma Power Systems signs contract with Bishop Hill Energy, American Superconductor selects subcontractors for the Tres Amigas SuperStation transmission hub in Clovis, N.M., and more ... </p>
<h4>Generation </h4>
<p><span class="boldred">Siemens Energy</span> will supply 15 of its SWT-3.0-101 direct drive wind turbines for Minnesota Power’s Bison 1 wind power plant near Center, N.D. <span class="boldred">Minnesota Power</span> modified its original order, replacing 33 Siemens SWT-2.3-101 geared wind turbines to now include 16 SWT-2.3-101, 2.3 MW machines and 15 SWT-3.0-101, 3 MW direct drive turbines. </p>
<p>Governor Jack Markell and state officials welcomed <span class="boldred">Calpine</span> to Delaware for the opening of its new regional headquarters, following the company’s $1.63 billion acquisition of <span class="boldred">Conectiv Energy</span> from Pepco Holdings. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">Louisville Gas and Electric</span> and <span class="boldred">Kentucky Utilities</span> selected Black &amp; Veatch’s Power Plant MD solution to enhance operations of its fleet of large-scale power generating stations in Kentucky. The technology streams power plant operating data to Black &amp; Veatch’s monitoring and diagnostics center in Overland Park, Kansas. There, engineers use advanced data recognition technologies to identify emerging problems or early warnings of potential equipment issues and work directly with the plant operations and maintenance staff to prioritize the appropriate corrective actions. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">Macpherson Energy</span> has acquired 50 percent ownership in Kern County’s Mt. Poso cogeneration plant and will co-lead its conversion to a 44 MW energy center operating 100 percent on biomass fuel. Macpherson Energy and<span class="boldred"> DTE Energy Services</span> subsidiaries acquired the Mt. Poso plant from its previous partners effective November 1. Mt. Poso has a 15-year agreement to sell the output to Pacific Gas &amp; Electric. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">First Wind</span> began construction of the 102 MW expansion of the company’s Milford Wind project. Located in Millard and Beaver County, Utah, the Milford Wind Phase II project began construction in July, with 68 additional 1.5 MW GE turbines being installed. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association</span> announced the completion of the 51 MW Kit Carson wind power project, located in east-central Colorado. The wholesale power supplier is purchasing the output of the facility through a 20-year agreement with a subsidiary of <span class="boldred">Duke Energy</span>. The facility is comprised of 34, 1.5 MW General Electric turbines on a 6,000-acre site northwest of Burlington, Colo.—within the service territory of tri-state member co-op K.C. Electric Association. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">Argan Inc.</span> announced that its wholly owned subsidiary <span class="boldred">Gemma Power Systems</span> has signed an approximately $51 million EPC contract with <span class="boldred">Bishop Hill Energy</span>, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Invenergy Wind North America to build a 200 MW wind farm in Henry County, Ill. The Bishop Hill wind farm is expected to consist of up to 134 General Electric wind turbines. Gemma Renewable Power will provide design and construction of roads, foundations, and electrical collection systems in addition to erecting towers, turbines, and blades. The project is anticipated to be completed in late 2011. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">AEP Ohio</span>, a unit of American Electric Power, signed a long-term power purchase agreement for wind energy with Paulding Wind Farm II LLC, a subsidiary of <span class="boldred">Horizon Wind Energy</span>. Through a 20-year agreement, AEP Ohio will purchase all of the output from the 99 MW facility, to be located in Paulding County, Ohio. The project will consist of 55 V100-1.8 MW turbines manufactured by Vestas. The facility is expected to be in commercial operation by mid-summer 2011. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">FirstEnergy</span> cancelled plans to repower units 4 and 5 at its R.E. Burger Plant in Shadyside, Ohio, said it would permanently shut down the units by Dec. 31, 2010. Since the Burger biomass repowering project was announced, market prices for electricity have fallen significantly, and expected market prices no longer support a repowered Burger plant. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">Nuclear Innovation North America LLC</span> (NINA), the nuclear development company jointly owned by <span class="boldred">NRG Energy</span> and <span class="boldred">Toshiba</span>, awarded the engineering, procurement and construction contract for its South Texas project units 3 and 4 to a restricted EPC consortium formed by Toshiba America Nuclear Energy (TANE) and the Shaw Group. NINA says the 2,700 MW South Texas nuclear power expansion project remains on track for permitting in 2012 and for the first unit to come online in 2016 and the second in 2017. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">Public Service Electric &amp; Gas</span> marked the first phase of construction at its Yardville Solar Farm in Hamilton Township, N.J. The 4.4 MW facility is one of four ground-mounted solar farms that the utility is developing as part of its $515 million Solar 4 All program, including development of more than 20 solar projects. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">SolarReserve </span>is proceeding with purchases of long-lead materials and equipment as it advances in financing arrangements with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) loan guarantee program for its Crescent Dunes Energy Project in Tonopah, Nev., and Rice Solar Energy Project in Riverside County, Calif. </p>
<p>West Virginia will rely on the Generation Attribute Tracking System (GATS) from <span class="boldred">PJM Environmental Information Services </span>(PJM EIS) in accounting for megawatt hours generated to satisfy the state’s new renewable portfolio standard. The PJM GATS, specified by the West Virginia Public Service Commission, provides tracking registry services. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">BlackLight Power</span> announced that researchers at Rowan University in New Jersey independently demonstrated the company’s controversial Catalyst-Induced-Hydrino-Transition (CIHT) technology to produce electric power from the conversion of hydrogen to “hydrinos,” which BlackLight says is a more stable form of hydrogen. A group of four Rowan University professors issued a joint statement, saying: “In tests conducted over the last 12 months [we] independently and consistently generated energy in excesses ranging from 1.3 times to 6.5 times the maximum theoretical heat available through known chemical reactions.” </p>
<h4>Transmission Systems </h4>
<p><span class="boldred">Pattern Energy Group</span> completed the Trans Bay Cable project in San Francisco, Calif., owned and operated by <span class="boldred">SteelRiver Transmission</span>, an affiliate of SteelRiver Infrastructure Partners. Pattern Energy’s transmission team conceived, developed and managed for SteelRiver the construction of the Trans Bay Cable, a 53-mile, 400 MW high voltage direct current submarine transmission line that can transmit up to 40 percent of the peak power needs for the city of San Francisco. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">Puget Sound Energy</span> completed transmission line upgrades along 40 miles of the company’s existing utility corridor between its Sedro-Woolley substation in Skagit County and its Horse Ranch substation near Everett in Snohomish County. The project upgraded PSE’s existing 115 kV transmission line to a 230 kV transmission line and installed a new fiber-optic line, improving electric reliability to utility customers throughout the region and increasing capacity of the regional bulk electric system. </p>
<p>The <span class="boldred">Electric Reliability Council of Texas</span>, grid operator and manager of the wholesale electric market, launched its new “nodal” systems . Nodal pricing became officially binding for financial settlement and billing on Nov. 30, 2010, replacing zonal market pricing that was in place since 2001. ERCOT says the market redesign and systems upgrade will improve grid reliability, increase market efficiency, and enable transparency of wholesale energy prices. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">Bonneville Power Administration (BPA)</span> selected Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories SEL-487E station phasor measurement unit (PMU) for the Western Electricity Coordinating Council’s (WECC) Western Interconnect Synchrophasor Project (WISP). BPA plans to install approximately 160 PMUs throughout the Northwest over the next three years. SEL says its PMUs meet a strict set of system integrity protection requirements based on wide-area, time-synchronized phasor measurements, which BPA specified to meet its needs beyond the specifications defined in the IEEE C37.118-2005 standard. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">American Superconductor</span> selected <span class="boldred">Korea’s LS Cable Ltd.</span> and <span class="boldred">France’s Nexans</span> as the superconductor power cable subcontractors for the Tres Amigas SuperStation transmission hub being developed in Clovis, N.M. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">Electric Transmission America (ETA)</span> has signed two separate memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with <span class="boldred">Exelon</span> and <span class="boldred">MidAmerican Energy</span> to develop two 765 kV, extra high-voltage transmission projects in the Midwest. ETA and Exelon expect to jointly develop 420 miles of 765 kV transmission lines extending from the Indiana-Ohio border west across Indiana into Henry County, Ill. Commonwealth Edison will build the $1.6 billion, Illinois portion of the project. It would be built in phases, likely between 2015 and 2018. And in the second MOU, ETA plans to jointly develop another 180 miles of 765 kV transmission that would extend from the terminus of the first project in Henry County, Ill., to Louisa County, Iowa, and then to Buchanan County, Iowa. The proposed $650 million project is expected to be operational by 2019, depending on the timing of regulatory approvals. ETA’s estimated share of both projects totals approximately $675 million, subject to final routing, design, and regulatory approvals. </p>
<h4>EVs &amp; Storage </h4>
<p><span class="boldred">Direct Energy</span> is teaming with <span class="boldred">NRG Energy</span> to deliver what the companies called America’s first, privately-funded electric vehicle charging solution to consumers. Initial rollout plans will deliver home and remote charging capabilities across Houston, with a broader Texas and U.S. rollout set to follow. The eVgo fueling package launched by NRG is designed to provide electric vehicle consumers with a turnkey solution for vehicle charging. </p>
<h4>DR &amp; Efficiency </h4>
<p><span class="boldred">GE Appliances &amp; Lighting</span> says it plans to be the first major appliance company to provide a whole-home solution for energy management. GE is developing solutions to help consumers better manage and control their energy use and costs by offering new technology such as the GeoSpring hybrid hot water heater, Nucleus energy manager, programmable thermostats, GE appliances enabled with Brillon technology and GE smart meters. </p>
<h4>SmartGrid </h4>
<p><span class="boldred">Alstom’s</span> smart grid demonstration was among five projects selected by U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu to receive $6 million in federal funding aimed at optimizing the U.S. electric grid with smart grid technologies. The Alstom Grid (formerly Areva T&amp;D) demonstration project was designed to efficiently integrate distributed energy resources into the electric grid. Its objective is to help the DOE reach its smart grid targets for 2030. Alstom says the project will be implemented with several partners, including Duke Energy, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the University of Washington and the University of Connecticut. </p>
<p> The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) also awarded <span class="boldred">On-Ramp Wireless </span>a smart grid technology grant, to utilize On-Ramp’s Ultra—Link Processing (ULP) wireless communication system to develop and demonstrate a wireless grid sensor and faulted circuit indicator capable of monitoring underground systems. On-Ramp says it successfully demonstrated the ability to connect wireless sensors throughout the distribution grid in a field test with Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL) in July 2010, and will conduct the project on in partnership with two Western utilities. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric </span>selected ABB for its intelligent grid advanced distribution management system (ADMS). Using ABB’s Network Manager, the ADMS will process data from power line sensors and smart electric meters to identify the location of power outages and remotely control intelligent grid switching devices to shorten the duration of power outages. Phase 1 is expected to be completed in 2013 and will cover more than half a million Houstonians. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">Cooper Power Systems</span> introduced the SMP 4/DP, a more advanced automation and integration platform of the SMP line of distribution processors. Cooper says its latest communication gateway product provides utilities with secure and reliable data acquisition and management. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">Burbank Water and Power (BWP) </span>selected <span class="boldred">Tropos Networks</span> as part of the municipal utility’s smart grid network. Tropos’GridCom architecture will be used in the city’s wireless distribution area network, providing connectivity for multiple utility smart grid applications. BWP’s smart grid investment is estimated at $62 million with rollout planned over the next three years. The program is funded by BWP and a $20 million U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) smart grid investment grant (SGIG). BWP recently completed its smart grid proof of concept phase that includes 900 advanced meter infrastructure (AMI) meters, portions of the Tropos GridCom network, a meter data management system (MDMS) and an outage management system (OMS). </p>
<p><span class="boldred">Survalent Technology </span>installed a new SCADA system for Pearl River Valley Electric Power Association. Survalent says the open-architecture system, based on Windows Server 2008, incorporates numerous applications, including: command sequencing, event data recorder, remote alarm, fault data recorder, and MultiSpeak interfaces for engineering analysis, outage analysis, AMI, load management, and GIS. </p>
</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-article-category field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above clearfix"><h3 class="field-label">Category (Actual): </h3><ul class="links"><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-0"><a href="/article-categories/generation-markets">Generation &amp; Markets</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-1"><a href="/article-categories/td-grid">T&amp;D Grid</a></li><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-2"><a href="/article-categories/finance">Finance</a></li></ul></div><div class="field field-name-field-members-only field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Viewable to All?:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-article-featured field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Is Featured?:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-department field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above clearfix"><h3 class="field-label">Department: </h3><ul class="links"><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-0"><a href="/department/vendor-neutral">Vendor Neutral</a></li></ul></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-picture field-type-image field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Image Picture:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://www.fortnightly.com/sites/default/files/article_images/1101/images/1101-VEN.jpg" width="1245" height="1500" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above clearfix">
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<a href="/tags/abb">ABB</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/adms">ADMS</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/aep">AEP</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/aep-ohio">AEP Ohio</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/alstom">Alstom</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/alstom-grid">Alstom Grid</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/american-electric-power">American Electric Power</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/american-superconductor">American Superconductor</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/ami">AMI</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/areva">Areva</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/bonneville-power-administration">Bonneville Power Administration</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/bpa">BPA</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/bpa-0">BPA</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/calpine">Calpine</a><span 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Sat, 01 Jan 2011 05:00:00 +0000puradmin14088 at http://www.fortnightly.comVendor Neutralhttp://www.fortnightly.com/fortnightly/2010/11/vendor-neutral
<div class="field field-name-field-import-deck field-type-text-long field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Deck:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-import-byline field-type-text-long field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Byline:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-import-category field-type-text field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Category:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Vendor Neutral</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-import-bio field-type-text-long field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Author Bio:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-import-volume field-type-node-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Magazine Volume:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Fortnightly Magazine - November 2010</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Former Pres. Bill Clinton and other dignitaries help Duke, Cisco and Charlotte, N.C., launch commercial efficiency initiative; AEP signs 20-year MOU to buy solar output from New Harvest plant; Wartsila expands gas-fired generator in Turkey; U.S. DOE awards geothermal RD&amp;D grants; GE acquires Dresser for $3 billion, and also acquires Calnetix industrial cogen technology; SunEdison sells 70 MW Rovigo PV plant; Ford Motor Co. and Oncor coordinate to install electric vehicle infrastructure; ABB and GM investigate uses for EV batteries after their transportation usefulness is depleted; plus contracts and announcements from EnerNoc, Echelon, Sensus, HP, 3TIER and more. </p>
<h4>Energy Services </h4>
<p><span class="boldred">Duke Energy, Cisco</span> and <span class="boldred">Charlotte Center City Partners</span> announced the creation of “Envision: Charlotte,” first-of-its-kind public-private collaboration to make commercial buildings in Charlotte’s urban core more energy efficient. The initiative was announced by former President Bill Clinton at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York. President Clinton was joined by Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers, Cisco CEO John Chambers, Charlotte Center City Partners CEO Michael Smith and Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx. A primary focus of Envision: Charlotte is to reduce energy in commercial buildings. The initiative will seek to partner with the owners of 60 commercial buildings and deploy a combination of digital smart grid and building automation technologies, as well as energy tracking tools, to provide building owners and office workers with near real-time information about the buildings’ collective energy use. It also will suggest specific actions office workers can take to reduce energy consumption. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">Turman Group</span>, a major lumber firm in Virginia, will use EnerNOC’s CarbonSMART application to manage greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. CarbonSMART will be deployed throughout Turman’s 10-location network, providing the company with a thorough inventory of its GHG emissions, as well as insight into common practices for additional energy efficiency. </p>
<h4>Generation </h4>
<p><span class="boldred">Wärtsilä </span>was awarded an engineering and equipment contract for extension of the Aksa Samsun power plant in Samsun, Turkey. The plant will be extended to incorporate the latest addition to Wärtsilä’s gas engine portfolio, the Wärtsilä 18V50SG engine. The engine has an electrical output of 18,321 kW, making it the largest gas-powered generating set in the world. This will be the first installation of the Wärtsilä 18V50SG unit, which features the high power-plant efficiency rating exceeding 50 percent in combined-cycle mode. </p>
<p>Ohio Governor Ted Strickland announced agreements to create Turning Point Solar, a 49.9-MW solar array to be built on strip-mined land adjacent to The Wilds nature conservancy.<span class="boldred"> American Electric Power</span> (AEP) CEO Michael G. Morris signed a memorandum of understanding with project developers <span class="boldred">New Harvest Ventures</span> and <span class="boldred">Agile Energy</span> to enter into a 20-year purchase agreement for the facility’s power. </p>
</p>
<p>Pending approval of state and local government incentives, two Spanish solar power component manufacturers, <span class="boldred">Prius Energy S.L.</span> and <span class="boldred">Isofoton</span>, have agreed to open new manufacturing facilities in Ohio to help build the 239,400 panel solar array. If operating today, Turning Point would be the largest photovoltaic solar array in the United States. Prius and Isofoton have agreed to locate their North American operations in Ohio, creating more than 300 permanent manufacturing jobs. </p>
<p>U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced $20 million to finance research, development and demonstration of cutting-edge geothermal technologies at seven projects. The projects will demonstrate the technical and economic feasibility of non-conventional geothermal energy technologies in three areas: low temperature fluids, geothermal fluids recovered from oil and gas wells, and highly pressurized geothermal fluids. The following projects were selected for awards: <span class="boldred">Low Temperature Geothermal Fluids:</span> 1) Energent Corp., Dixie Valley, Nev. ($1.2 million). Energent will demonstrate the innovative features of a geothermal power plant using a scale-resistant heat exchanger design to allow increased use of low temperature resources; 2) GreenFire Energy, Springerville, Ariz. ($2 million). GreenFire Energy will provide field evaluations of a low temperature carbon dioxide-based geothermal electric power plant; 3) Modoc Contracting Co., Canby, Modoc County, Calif. ($2 million). Modoc proposes to create a complete cascaded use of a geothermal resource—from low temperature power generation through several direct-use applications, including a direct heating system, greenhouse operation and fish farm—that will demonstrate energy-efficient use of geothermal fluids; 4) Oski Energy, Susanville, Lassen County, Calif. ($2 million). Oski Energy will test a power cycle technology that uses a mixture of ammonia and water as the working fluid. <span class="boldred">Geothermal Fluids Produced from Oil and Gas Wells:</span> 1) ElectraTherm, Florida Canyon Mine, Nev. ($982,000). ElectraTherm seeks to demonstrate the financial and technical viability of producing electricity from heat coproduced in geothermal brine. <span class="boldred">Highly Pressurized or Geopressured Fluid:</span> 1) Louisiana Geothermal, Cameron Parish, La. ($500,000). Louisiana Geothermal seeks to demonstrate that electricity can be produced economically from geopressured resources by validating the significant geopressured geothermal resource base in southern Louisiana and the northern Gulf of Mexico basin; and 2) NRG Energy, Princeton, N.J. ($500,000). NRG will evaluate and characterize a target geothermal reservoir for development of a power plant. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">Power-One</span> in October opened its new manufacturing facility in Phoenix, Ariz. The Power-One Phoenix facility will produce its photovoltaic and wind inverters, including single phase (2-6 kW) and three-phase string inverters, and NEMA 3R 250-kW, 300-kW and 400-kW central inverters. In the future, for wind applications, the product range will include 2.5-MW inverters. The facility will support more than 350 new jobs in Arizona and throughout the United States. The new manufacturing plant will reach an annual inverter production capacity of 1 GW by mid-2011. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">3TIER</span> launched on-demand online access to its Reference Wind Time-Series, a new product that increases the accuracy of wind energy production estimates for any location worldwide. 3TIER says performing measure-correlate-predict (MCP) with the product reduces the level of uncertainty in annual production estimates. </p>
<p>Shanghai-based <span class="boldred">JA Solar Holdings</span>, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of high-performance solar cells and solar power products, signed agreements with BP Solar to provide a total of more than 185 MW of mono-crystalline and multi-crystalline solar cells in 2010 and through 2011. </p>
<h4>Metering </h4>
<p><span class="boldred">A.P. Systems</span>, an Italian supplier of information and communication technology to utilities and public administrations, is using the Sierra Wireless AirPrime WMP100 Intelligent Embedded Module and Open AT Operating System to provide wireless connectivity to its M3-S multi-metering system. Sierra Wireless says the M3-S can manage data from different types of devices—metering gas, electricity, water, heat and street lighting—in a single infrastructure using cellular, low power RF ZigBee or power line carrier connections. The AirPrime WMP100 module combines embedded processor capability and wireless connectivity. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">Cleveland Utilities</span>, an electric, water and wastewater utility located in Cleveland, Tenn., chose Elster’s EnergyAxis smart grid solution to deliver electric services to its customer base, as part of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s smart grid plan. The system will form a network of 29,000 electric meters at residential and commercial and industrial locations. Over the next three years, Elster REX2 and A3 Alpha electricity meters will be deployed to provide Cleveland Utilities with advanced metering infrastructure. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">HP</span> announced that <span class="boldred">CEZ Group</span>, an electricity generation, distribution and trade conglomerate based in the Czech Republic, has signed a $20.6 million, two-year application services agreement to implement an advanced meter management (AMM) pilot program. Under the agreement, HP will lead a consortium of companies to deploy more than 40,000 smart meters. The AMM pilot program also allows CEZ Group to collect and manage data from meters supplied by four vendors, in preparation for deployment of the full-scale AMM project. HP Utility Center software will supervise the distribution network for event and alarm management. </p>
<h4>Mergers &amp; Acquisitions </h4>
<p><span class="boldred">GE</span> acquired substantially all the assets of <span class="boldred">Calnetix Power Solutions</span> (CPS), a Florida-based company that develops innovative technology for small-scale, waste heat-to-power projects. The technology captures waste heat from industrial processes to generate electricity, increasing efficiency and reducing the carbon footprint of various types of engines, biomass boilers and gas turbines. The acquired business will be integrated into GE’s Jenbacher gas engine business, based in Jenbach, Austria. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">GE</span> signed a contract to acquire <span class="boldred">Dresser</span>, a global energy infrastructure technology and service provider. The $3 billion deal adds to GE’s portfolio Dresser’s technologies for gas engines, control and relief valves, measurement, regulation and control solutions for gas and fuel distribution. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">SunEdison</span>, a subsidiary of<span class="boldred"> MEMC Electronic Materials</span>, announced the sale to First Reserve of a 70 MW photovoltaic power plant located in Northeast Italy, near the town of Rovigo. When completed in the fourth quarter of 2010, the Rovigo plant is expected to be the largest operating solar power plant in Europe. SunEdison and Banco Santander jointly developed and co-owned the Rovigo plant. First Reserve acquired Rovigo plant through the previously announced joint venture between First Reserve Energy and SunEdison. SunEdison is a minority investor. The total price for the sale is expected to be approximately €276 million. After the sale, SunEdison will manage the ongoing operations and maintenance of the Rovigo plant. </p>
<h4>Storage &amp; EVs </h4>
<p><span class="boldred">Puget Sound </span>Energy President Kimberly Harris told a gathering of elected officials, transportation planners and auto-industry representatives that the utility is prepared to support the integration of plug-in electric vehicles (EV) into Western Washington’s transportation system. During a one-day regional workshop in late September at PSE’s Bellevue headquarters, Harris said PSE intends to actively help manufacturers, municipalities and electric-vehicle purchasers enhance their deployment of plug-in automobiles as the vehicles start entering the Puget Sound marketplace this fall. The “Get Plug-In Ready—Now!” workshop was coordinated by Puget Sound New Energy Solutions, a partnership of Central Puget Sound municipalities, utilities, housing and transit authorities. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">Viridity Energy</span> received a $900,000 grant for a pilot project with the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA), the nation’s sixth largest public transit organization. Viridity will deploy its software to allow SEPTA to run a pilot project to install regenerative braking systems on trains at the City of Philadelphia’s busiest subway line. Electricity captured by the systems would be stored, with excess energy offered for sale at a premium to PJM grid operators. Viridity says the system is intended to reduce SEPTA’s operating costs and carbon footprint and also help stabilize the grid. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">Ford </span>and<span class="boldred"> Oncor </span>are coordinating efforts to help prepare North Texas for the operation of EVs. Ford and Oncor will work together to develop consumer outreach and education programs on EVs, as well as share information on charging needs and requirements to ensure the electrical grid can support demand. Cooperation between Ford and Oncor also involves working with the state and local governments on the most efficient ways to bring EVs to North Texas. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">Oncor</span> says it has installed more than 1 million of its planned 3.4 million smart meters, capable of providing information to help customers charge EVs when rates are lowest. Oncor added that it will build about 850 miles of new transmission lines from Competitive Renewable Energy Zones (CREZ) in West Texas to the rest of the state by 2013, enabling EVs to be powered from renewable energy sources. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">ABB</span> and<span class="boldred"> General Motors</span> have signed a non-exclusive MOU to cooperate on a research and development project that will investigate uses for EV batteries once their useful life in the vehicle is over. The project will examine the potential of reusing spent lithium-ion battery packs from GM’s electric car, the Chevy Volt, as a means of providing cost-effective energy storage capacity. According to GM, the Volt’s battery still will have significant capacity to store electrical energy, even after its automotive life is over. </p>
<h4>People </h4>
<p><span class="boldred">Echelon Corp.’s</span> board appointed Ron Sege as president and CEO and the company’s board. He most recently served as president and COO of 3Com from 2008 through its acquisition by HP. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">Orion Energy Systems</span> named <b>Michael Potts </b>its president and COO. Potts served most recently as Orion’s executive v.p., building on a more than 20-year career in energy management. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">Sensus</span> selected <b>David Elve</b> as v.p. of industry solutions. Elve will lead the regulatory and standards environment and support the company’s global smart-grid initiatives. Elve brings 20 years of utility and IT experience with leading international companies, including Enspiria Solutions, Landis+Gyr and Atos Origin. Most recently, Elve was v.p. with Enspiria, recently acquired by Black &amp; Veatch. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">ARCADIS</span>, the international design, consulting, engineering and management services company, hired Debbie J. Vreeland as v.p. serving ARCADIS’ energy market sector, based in Billings, Mont. </p>
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Mon, 01 Nov 2010 04:00:00 +0000puradmin13581 at http://www.fortnightly.comVendor Neutralhttp://www.fortnightly.com/fortnightly/2010/10/vendor-neutral
<div class="field field-name-field-import-deck field-type-text-long field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Deck:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-import-byline field-type-text-long field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Byline:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-import-category field-type-text field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Category:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Vendor Neutral</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-import-bio field-type-text-long field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Author Bio:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-import-volume field-type-node-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Magazine Volume:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Fortnightly Magazine - October 2010</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Itron deploys meter modules throughout Black Hills territory; Siemens to supply gas turbine packages to Mississippi Power; Cisco acquires Arch Rock for IP-based wireless smart metering applications; eMeter closes $12.5 million private-equity round; Enspiria helps NV Energy secure approvals for smart grid plan; American Superconductor invests in wind-turbine blade manufacturer; DOE selects 22 carbon-capture and storage projects for R&amp;D funding; Petra Solar wins Sandia matching grant; plus announcements from Johnson Controls, Tantalus, Cooper Power, ComEd, UISOL, Convergys, SOLON and more. </p>
<h4>Customer Systems </h4>
<p><span class="boldred">ESRI</span> has been chosen by the Northeastern Rural Electric Membership Corp. (REMC) to supply mobile geographic information system (GIS) technology to allow the co-op to better serve the energy needs of its growing customer base. Northeastern REMC utility linemen once navigated the northeastern Indiana service territories by memory, armed with a handful of paper maps. Now field crews use laptops equipped with ArcGIS software from ESRI to instantly update information related to outages, work orders, regular maintenance, and customers. The GIS data is accessible throughout the company, with approximately 43 users on different devices in several departments. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">Convergys</span> has received a new patent for computerized processing and billing of pre- and post-paid simultaneous events. The patent applies to Convergys systems that allow companies to process, charge, and bill concurrent events performed by the customer, such as taking a call, downloading a song, and sending a text message, all in real time. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">Utility Integration Solutions </span>(UISOL) announced the successful commissioning of its DRBizNet DRMS software application to power the California Independent System Operator’s (ISO) new proxy demand resources (PDR) demand-response (DR) program. DRBizNet is the basic architecture of the PDR system, allowing DR providers to schedule demand and bid load curtailments as an integrated bid. DR providers can use co-optimization of energy and ancillary services in both the day-ahead and real-time markets to determine the best utilization of DR resources. </p>
<h4>Generation </h4>
<p><span class="boldred">Seaboard</span>, through subsidiary Transcontinental Capital, awarded a contract to Wärtsilä to supply equipment on a turnkey basis for a barge-mounted power plant power project for the Dominican Republic. The plant will run on natural gas, and will have an output of 106 MW to be supplied to the national grid, primarily to serve the country’s capital city, Santo Domingo. It’s scheduled to be operational before the end of 2011. The barge will expand Seaboard’s existing power generation operations in the Dominican Republic. The scope of supply for the order includes six Wärtsilä 18V50DF dual-fuel engines in combined-cycle mode, including heat recovery boilers for each engine, and a complete steam turbine generator system. </p>
<p>Tucson-based <span class="boldred">SOLON</span>, one of the largest crystalline silicon solar module manufacturers in the United States and provider of turnkey solar power plants, announced an agreement with Tucson Electric Power (TEP) that will bring a 1.6-MW solar power plant to Tucson. The University of Arizona will host the 1.6-MW single-axis tracking system at UATechPark’s SolarZone, a 200-acre solar integration center. Powered by SOLON systems and modules, the plant will provide solar-generated power for Tucson residents. TEP will own and operate the facility. </p>
<p>U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu in September announced <span class="boldred">DOE’s </span>selection of 22 projects that will accelerate carbon capture and storage (CCS) research and development. Funded with more than $575 million from the <i>American Recovery and Reinvestment Act</i>, the R&amp;D projects complement the industrial demonstration projects already being funded through the act. The selections include projects from four different areas of CCS research and development: 1) large-scale testing of advanced gasification technologies; 2) advanced turbo-machinery to lower emissions from industrial sources; 3) post-combustion CO<sub>2</sub> capture with increased efficiencies and decreased costs; and 4) geologic storage site characterization. </p>
<p>DOE’s <span class="boldred">Sandia National Laboratories</span> awarded $8.5 million to four projects that have reached Stage III of the solar energy grid integration systems (SEGIS) program. These investments will be matched more than one-to-one by the SEGIS contractors to support more than $20 million in total projects. The selections are part of the DOE’s ongoing work to improve grid reliability for solar technologies. The SEGIS Stage III selections include: $660,000 to Florida Solar Energy Center at the University of Central Florida in Cocoa, Fla.; $2.7 million for Petra Solar South in Plainfield, N.J.; $2.7 million for Princeton Power in Princeton, N.J.; and $2.4 million for PVPowered in Bend, Ore. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">DOE</span> awarded a partial guarantee for a $98.5 million loan to the 49-MW Blue Mountain geothermal project in Humboldt County in northwestern Nevada. The guarantee supports a loan from John Hancock Financial Services to a subsidiary of Nevada Geothermal Power. The Blue Mountain project consists of a geothermal well field and fluid collection and injection systems that enable energy to be extracted from rock and fluid below the earth’s surface, and a geothermal power plant. The project will sell electricity and renewable energy credits to Nevada Power under a 20-year power purchase agreement. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">Nevada Solar Works</span>, a partnership between Q&amp;D Construction, CleanPath Renewables and Alternative Energy Solutions, won a contract to build 1.3 MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) projects for the City of Reno, Nev. The Reno City Council approved a 1-MW fixed tilt ground-mount system at the Reno-Stead Water Treatment Plant and 295-kW in fixed tilt roof and ground-mount installations at five other locations throughout the city. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">Pattern Energy Group LP</span> announced in September that MetLife made an equity partnership investment in Pattern’s Gulf Wind project. Gulf Wind is a fully operational 283-MW wind farm located in Kenedy County, Texas, that produces clean energy equivalent to the power needs of 80,000 Texas homes. The terms of the investment weren’t disclosed. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">Siemens Energy</span> was awarded a contract from Mississippi Power, a subsidiary of Southern Company, to supply two SGT6-PAC 5000F gas-turbine packages. These gas turbines will be installed in a coal-fired integrated gasification combined-cycle (IGCC) power plant using Southern’s proprietary TRIG gasification technology. Approximately 65 percent of CO2 emissions from the 582-MWe Kemper County power plant are expected to be captured—an annual reduction of three million tons of CO2. The plant is expected to begin operation in mid-2014. </p>
<h4>Geospatial Imaging </h4>
<p><span class="boldred">Trimble</span> introduced the Trimble MX8 Mobile Spatial Imaging System, an advanced mobile data capture system that combines imaging and laser-scanning capabilities to measure objects in 3D to produce 3D, 4D and 5D data sets for spatial imaging projects. The system is used for as-built modeling, inventory, inspection, encroachment analysis, and asset management for utilities, transportation and other infrastructure. The company says many applications use airborne information, but can benefit from ground-based positioning and imaging. </p>
<h4>Mergers &amp; Acquisitions </h4>
<p><span class="boldred">Cisco</span> in September announced its intent to acquire privately held Arch Rock, a pioneer in Internet protocol-based wireless network technology for smart-grid applications. Cisco said Arch Rock would enable Cisco to offer a comprehensive and secure advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) solution that’s fully based on IP and open standards. Arch Rock’s technology is designed to enable utilities to connect smart meters and other distributed intelligent devices over a scalable, highly secure, multi-way wireless mesh network. The acquisition complements the recently announced strategic alliance between Itron and Cisco to develop solutions that enhance smart-metering technology. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">American Superconductor</span> acquired a 25-percent ownership position in Blade Dynamics, a designer and manufacturer of advanced wind-turbine blades based on proprietary materials and structural technologies. Founded in the United Kingdom in 2007, Blade Dynamics has developed wind-turbine blade technologies designed to increase the efficiency and performance of very high power (multi-megawatt) wind turbines, while also reducing costs. Dow Chemical, through its Venture Capital group, also made a minority equity investment in Blade Dynamics. </p>
<h4>Metering </h4>
<p><span class="boldred">eMeter</span> closed a $12.5 million round of private financing, led by longtime investors Sequoia Capital and Foundation Capital, plus new investor, Northgate Capital. eMeter provides software solutions to enable smart-grid implementations. eMeter says that over the past year it has partnered with such companies as IBM, Siemens, and SAP, and signed new U.S. utility customers including Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative, Burbank Water and Power, CenterPoint Energy, Silicon Valley Power, Westar Energy, Central Vermont Power and, most recently, Wabash Energy. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">Itron</span> announced that the natural gas distribution companies of Black Hills Utility Holdings, located in Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado, have begun deploying 100G Datalogging gas ERT modules from Itron. Black Hills Energy expects the 100G Datalogging gas ERT module will allow the company to collect daily or hourly customer meter data, offering increased operational efficiency and enhanced levels of customer service through additional accuracy and timeliness of information. Access to frequent meter data will facilitate improvements in bill reconciliations and reduce truck rolls for off-cycle reads. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">Cooper Power Systems </span>has been selected by Consolidated Electric Cooperative of Mount Gilead, Ohio, to deploy its power line carrier (PLC) AMI network throughout the electric cooperative’s service territory. The project includes implementing more than 16,000 new electric meters with integrated Cooper AMI modules within a 12-month period, with meter data to be managed on the Yukon advanced energy services platform. The system will connect the cooperative to members dispersed throughout eight central Ohio counties served by nearly 1,500 miles of distribution line. </p>
<h4>Environmental Controls </h4>
<p><span class="boldred">Nalco Mobotec</span> has signed a contract with Hoosier Energy Rural Electric Cooperative to provide two ROTAMIX SNCR (selective non-catalytic reduction) systems for NOx control at the Frank E. Ratts Generating Station. The Ratts facility, located in Petersburg, Ind., is a coal-fired power plant consisting of two 125-MW boilers, originally built in 1970. Nalco Mobotec will begin work immediately, with both units scheduled for continuous operation of the new system by December 2011. The ROTAMIX technology will build on previous NO<sub>x</sub> reduction provided by Nalco Mobotec’s ROFA (rotating opposed fired air) technology to contain and reduce NO<sub>x</sub> emissions. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">Johnson Controls</span> signed an energy performance contract (EPC) with the German army for the Oranienstein base. The German army hopes to cut annual energy costs a the base by 49 percent and further reduce its emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) by 55 percent. Johnson Controls already is retrofitting another German army base in Aulenbach, aiming to reduce energy costs by 69 percent and GHG emissions by 76 percent. In order to reach these targets, Johnson Controls says it will deploy retrofit and improvement measures including: replacement of an 850-kW oil boiler by a woodchip boiler; installation of two mini gas-fired combined heat and power plants (CHP); construction of a gas pipeline for CHP; change of warm water supply in several buildings; installation of meters; modernization of controls and more. </p>
<h4>Smart Grid </h4>
<p><span class="boldred">ComEd </span>launched a series of smart-grid pilots to evaluate the latest technologies and implementation approaches in areas such as residential solar power, the company’s first intelligent substation, distribution automation and electric-vehicle charging stations. The initiative, which ComEd calls the “smart grid innovation corridor” encompasses 10 communities and will build upon the smart meters currently installed in 130,000 residences in that area. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">Enspiria Solutions </span>helped <span class="boldred">NV</span><span class="boldred">Energy</span> secure formal, regulatory approval of its advanced service delivery (ASD) project from the Nevada Public Utility Commission, which unanimously approved NV Energy’s ASD project. ASD is NV Energy’s smart- grid and smart-meter project, and will enable customers to directly manage their energy use and allow for better management of energy resources statewide. NV Energy received $138 million in smart-grid investment grant stimulus funding from the U.S. DOE, specifically for implementation of the $301 million ASD project. Enspiria supported ASD development across strategy, business case, solution architecture, and vendor selections; and is now providing program management and systems integration support for the ASD deployment. </p>
<p><span class="boldred">Jackson Energy Authority</span> (JEA) selected <span class="boldred">Tantalus</span> as its smart-grid technology platform. JEA, a municipal utility located midway between Nashville and Memphis, operates one of the most advanced utility-owned fiber-optic networks in the country. The bandwidth afforded by fiber enables JEA to roll out a range of demand-response applications, including Tantalus smart thermostats and load control for residential and C&amp;I customers, in addition to implementing smart metering to over 100,000 electric, water and gas endpoints. The project also includes strategic deployment of electric meters equipped with remote disconnect under glass switches, which allows JEA to address non-payments and move-in, move-outs directly from its operations center. </p>
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<div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div>
<div class="field-items">
<a href="/tags/american-recovery-and-reinvestment-act">American Recovery and Reinvestment Act</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/american-superconductor">American Superconductor</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/ami">AMI</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/california-independent-system-operator">California Independent System Operator</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/ccs">CCS</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/centerpoint-energy-0">CenterPoint Energy</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/cisco">Cisco</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/co2">CO2</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/co2-emissions">CO2 emissions</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/comed">ComEd</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/commission">Commission</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/cooper-power-systems">Cooper Power Systems</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/doe">DOE</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/dow-chemical">Dow Chemical</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/dr">DR</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/drms">DRMS</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/emeter">eMeter</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/energy-secretary-steven-chu">Energy Secretary Steven Chu</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/enspiria-solutions">Enspiria Solutions</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/epc">EPC</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/geothermal">Geothermal</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/ghg">GHG</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/gis">GIS</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/grid-reliability">grid reliability</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/ibm">IBM</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/integration">Integration</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/iso">ISO</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/itron">Itron</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/jea">JEA</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/johnson-controls">Johnson Controls</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/metlife">MetLife</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/mississippi-power">Mississippi Power</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/nv-energy">NV Energy</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/ot">OT</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/pattern-energy">Pattern Energy</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/pattern-energy-group">Pattern Energy Group</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/pv">PV</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/recovery">Recovery</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/renewable">Renewable</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/siemens">Siemens</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/siemens-energy">Siemens Energy</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/silicon">Silicon</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/silicon-valley-power">Silicon Valley Power</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/solar">Solar</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/solon">SOLON</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/southern-company">Southern Company</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/steven-chu">Steven Chu</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/storage">storage</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/tantalus">Tantalus</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/tep">TEP</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/transco">Transco</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/tucson-electric-power">Tucson Electric Power</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/us-energy-secretary-steven-chu">U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/uisol">UISOL</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/utility-integration-solutions">Utility Integration Solutions</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/wind">Wind</a> </div>
</div>
Fri, 01 Oct 2010 04:00:00 +0000puradmin13595 at http://www.fortnightly.comThe Green Policehttp://www.fortnightly.com/fortnightly/2010/03/green-police
<div class="field field-name-field-import-deck field-type-text-long field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Deck:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Technology advances despite a political conflict.</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-import-byline field-type-text-long field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Byline:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Michael T. Burr, Editor-in-Chief</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-import-category field-type-text field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Category:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Frontlines</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-import-bio field-type-text-long field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Author Bio:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p> </p>
<p class="p1"><b>Michael T. Burr</b> is <em>Fortnightly’s</em> editor-in-chief. Email him at <a href="mailto:burr@pur.com">burr@pur.com</a>.</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-import-volume field-type-node-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Magazine Volume:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Fortnightly Magazine - March 2010</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Opinion polls show that Americans are growing tired of eco-nannyism. This isn’t a new trend, but on February 7 it went prime-time, during the biggest TV event of the year: Superbowl XLIV.</p>
<p>During the fourth quarter, the big game’s record-breaking 100 million-plus TV viewers witnessed a new commercial for the Audi A3 TDI luxury sedan. Set to the tune of “The Dream Police” (a 1979 hit by the band Cheap Trick), the 60-second Audi ad depicts so-called “green police” arresting people who install incandescent light bulbs and throw batteries in the trash. The punch line arrives when a green cop at a traffic checkpoint identifies an Audi A3 and tells the driver, “Clean diesel … you’re good to go, sir.”</p>
<p>Audi’s ironic ad simultaneously ridicules the green movement and promotes the green cred of its product, which the company says produces 30 percent less greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions per mile than a comparable gasoline-powered car. In this way, the company’s marketing strategy assumes at least two things about prospective Audi buyers:</p>
<p>1) They’re sick and tired of eco-preaching. They’re choking on locally grown, fair-trade, organic tofu burgers, and they’re ready to kick the next person who mentions a carbon footprint; and</p>
<p>2) They expect eco-regulation to persist and intensify. When they go car shopping, they believe fuel economy and emissions performance increasingly will dictate their choices. They don’t necessarily like it, but they view it as inevitable.</p>
<p>All of this suggests a couple of interesting lessons for U.S. utilities.</p>
<p>First, as we seek ways to bring ratepayers on board with such green-energy options as conservation, demand response and renewable energy, we might assume that many of them will find the whole thing annoying at best. They’ve seen it coming and they’re ready to accept the costs, but we shouldn’t expect them to like it. Utilities’ approach to marketing and customer service should account for this reality.</p>
<p>Second, it suggests that green has transcended beyond a trend to become a fact of life, yielding fundamental changes in American markets—and politics.</p>
<h4>Nuclear Maneuver</h4>
<p>Political battles are heating up in the fight over environmental regulation. Since last summer, when the House of Representatives approved the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill, the front lines in the green revolution have moved substantially backward. Opponents of GHG regulation chalked up a major victory in December when the U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen failed to formulate anything resembling a binding accord. Also, an anti-eco movement coalesced around last year’s “climategate” scandal—in which hackers stole and publicized embarrassing email messages written by scientists at Britain’s University of East Anglia.</p>
<p>At the same time, in early 2010 the Obama Administration found itself significantly weakened after a year of bad economic news and the collapse of Congressional Democrats’ healthcare reform bill. By mid-February, climate legislation in Congress seemed dead for 2010, and the administration seemed unlikely to spend what remained of its political capital issuing controversial GHG constraints based on the EPA’s Clean Air Act “endangerment finding.”</p>
<p>Just as it appeared the green police were being surrounded by anti-eco opponents, however, Energy Secretary Steven Chu launched a flanking maneuver, announcing $3.4 billion in loan guarantees to support Southern Company’s investment in two new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle in Georgia.</p>
<p>After the announcement, Southern CEO David Ratcliffe pointed out nuclear energy’s importance for improving America’s energy security and addressing climate change. But not surprisingly, Southern and DOE focused more attention on the thousands of construction jobs the new reactors will create, and their role in revitalizing America’s prowess in nuclear technology.</p>
<p>In effect, Plant Vogtle became the equivalent of Audi’s A3 sedan: expensive, prestigious and green. And by championing it in the midst of an ideological struggle, the administration was playing good cop to the green police’s bad cop. Chu might’ve told Ratcliffe, “Clean nuclear … you’re good to go, sir.”</p>
<h4>Editor’s Note</h4>
<p>In this issue, readers will notice a new department in <i>Fortnightly</i>—“<a href="http://www.fortnightly.com/fortnightly/2010/03/vendor-neutral">Vendor Neutral</a>.” This department’s purpose is simple: it provides a snapshot of some of the most interesting technology-related developments happening in the industry.</p>
<p>Looking at this month’s “Vendor Neutral,” one can’t help but notice that it’s heavily dominated by items related to renewables, demand response and other green technologies. Some readers might conclude from this fact that <i>Fortnightly’s</i> editors intentionally excluded announcements related to traditional fossil or nuclear power plants, but we didn’t. Indeed, we used every such announcement that we could find in time for our deadline.</p>
<p>Specifically, this month’s “Vendor Neutral” column includes exactly one item related to coal, and it involves carbon capture and sequestration technology. The utter absence of news about traditional energy technologies is telling us one thing, loud and clear: The industry is laser-focused on green energy, to the virtual exclusion of everything else.</p>
<p>In the months ahead, “Vendor Neutral” will show whether the green-tech trend continues, or whether popular and political backlash translates into new business for less-green technologies.–MTB</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-article-category field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above clearfix"><h3 class="field-label">Category (Actual): </h3><ul class="links"><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-0"><a href="/article-categories/dr-conservation">DR &amp; Conservation</a></li></ul></div><div class="field field-name-field-members-only field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Viewable to All?:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-article-featured field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Is Featured?:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-department field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above clearfix"><h3 class="field-label">Department: </h3><ul class="links"><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-0"><a href="/department/frontlines">Frontlines</a></li></ul></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-picture field-type-image field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Image Picture:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://www.fortnightly.com/sites/default/files/article_images/1003/images/1003-FR.jpg" width="1121" height="665" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-fortnightly-40 field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Is Fortnightly 40?:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-law-lawyers field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Is Law &amp; Lawyers:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above clearfix">
<div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div>
<div class="field-items">
<a href="/tags/clean-air-act">Clean Air Act</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/congress">Congress</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/doe">DOE</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/energy-secretary-steven-chu">Energy Secretary Steven Chu</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/epa">EPA</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/ghg">GHG</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/nuclear">Nuclear</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/southern-company">Southern Company</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/steven-chu">Steven Chu</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/waxman-markey">Waxman-Markey</a> </div>
</div>
Mon, 01 Mar 2010 05:00:00 +0000puradmin13631 at http://www.fortnightly.comSmart Grid Consensushttp://www.fortnightly.com/fortnightly/2010/02/smart-grid-consensus
<div class="field field-name-field-import-deck field-type-text-long field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Deck:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Workable standards require utility input.</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-import-byline field-type-text-long field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Byline:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Dick DeBlasio</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-import-bio field-type-text-long field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Author Bio:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><strong>Dick DeBlasio</strong> is principle laboratory program manager for electricity programs with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and serves as chairman of the IEEE P2030 Work Group.</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-import-volume field-type-node-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Magazine Volume:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Fortnightly Magazine - February 2010</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>The U.S. electric delivery system steadily is becoming more intelligent, but there is no question that the contemporary smart-grid movement marks a definitive break from the past. Several key differences can be expected. For the first time, more of a shared, national regulatory model likely will be adopted across the disparate public utility commissions in various states and regions. Also, a large-scale model of distributed power generation spanning both business and residential users is being proposed. Seamless, two-way communications and control will be enabled so that usage more directly informs generation and enables more efficient operations. These changes are creating an opportunity for bringing greater intelligence to the business of delivering utility services.</p>
<p>The time is now for utilities to engage in smart-grid planning, as decisions being made today will dramatically impact the ways utilities do business in the coming decades.</p>
<h4>From Vision to Movement</h4>
<p>The U.S. government during the last months of 2009 announced billions of dollars of grants for regional demonstration projects designed to jump start introduction of the long-discussed smart grid.</p>
<p>“These demonstration projects will further our knowledge and understanding of what works best and delivers the best results for the smart grid, setting the course for a modern grid that is critical to achieving our energy goals,” said U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu in a press release. “This funding will be used to show how smart-grid technologies can be applied to whole systems to promote energy savings for consumers, increase energy efficiency, and foster the growth of renewable energy sources like wind and solar power.”</p>
<p>Most of the federal funding thus far has gone toward smart meters. They are an important innovation but only one element of the vision for the next-generation, interstate smart grid that is crystallizing across the power, IT and communications communities: An automated, intelligent and adaptive system for end-to-end, bidirectional power flow spanning the entire nation.</p>
<p>The gathering vision begs significant technical questions about the smart grid’s functional requirements.</p>
<p>For example, the non-uniform nature of the utility industry brings up key questions. While a version of Internet protocol likely will underlie smart-grid communications and control, it’s clear that migration to the smart grid will be evolutionary. So exactly how will the next-generation, cross-jurisdiction system encompass utility operations at widely varying stages of modernization? The smart grid will have to accommodate millions of legacy devices for many years, given that the term “legacy” will encompass everything from refrigerators to the advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) systems that are being installed even today.</p>
<p>Smart-grid security also is a key area of scrutiny, as a breach potentially could jeopardize individuals’ safety, disrupt critical national infrastructure and erode utility customers’ confidence. With communications and control being introduced to the power infrastructure, the most cost-effective time to design and implement comprehensive cyber-security mechanisms is now—so utilities don’t have to re-invest to safeguard information assets after initial implementation.</p>
<p>A movement has unified across the communications, IT and power industries to work out the best answers to such questions, and certainly the distinct voices of various utilities need to be heard in this process. After all, the smart grid’s planners are serving utilities and their customers.</p>
<h4>Including Consumers</h4>
<p>What impact will the smart-grid’s development have on utility customers? Among the most striking changes figure to be the tighter coupling of power generation with power usage and the wider-scale appearance of distributed generation, and this means that consumers will have the potential to partner in energy consumption management and storage.</p>
<p>Historically, there has been no effective means to determine when customers would need power, how much they would need and for how long. Moving forward, the smart grid would enable utilities to better understand and respond to their customers’ usage patterns. This should significantly enhance the efficiency of utility operations, as the load required by power users could be managed more strategically over the course of a day and across energy sources.</p>
<p>Similarly, while there have been some limited instances of customers providing power back to their utilities, the concepts of net metering and distributed generation are expected to expand on a wide scale across both corporate and residential customers in the smart grid. For this to occur, communications and control in the areas of billing and measurement for sub-metering must be improved and standardized. This information must be traded in a standardized way in order for a utility to cost-effectively engage with the full gamut of its customer base.</p>
<p>Other consumer questions, particularly around where the boundaries of communications will extend, are highly controversial. For example, will the smart grid reach into homes and entail control of consumer appliances? Utility insight into these and other implications for consumers will prove invaluable as the smart grid progresses.</p>
<h4>Landscape of Stakeholders</h4>
<p>A tremendous array of stakeholders will make valuable contributions in the smart-grid’s rollout. Among this landscape of stakeholders, utilities will recognize a dividing line between participants who are creating standards and those that are implementing them. On one side of that point of demarcation, organizations such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and state and regional public utility commissions will influence how the smart grid employs various technologies.</p>
<p>In accordance with terms of the U.S. <i>Energy Independence and Security Act</i> of 2007, NIST is crafting a standards roadmap and conformance testing and certification framework for the smart grid. As part of this, NIST is working to identify today’s consensus standards around which smart-grid development can advance. NIST already has identified several standards to help industry planning to progress, such as: IEEE C37.118 [phasor measurement unit (PMU) communications]; IEEE 1547 [physical and electrical interconnections between utility and distributed generation (DG)]; and IEEE 1686-2007 [security for intelligent electronic devices (IEDs)].</p>
<p>FERC, meanwhile, is responsible for mandating the standards and ensuring reliability and security for the nation’s power system across states. Within state and regional jurisdictions, then, this regulatory authority falls to disparate public utility commissions. One of the prerequisites of smart-grid success figures to be unification of the currently fragmented standards landscape across the nation’s electricity delivery infrastructure.</p>
<p>In addition to NIST, FERC and the public utility commissions, other regulators and testing laboratories will contribute to smart-grid implementation. The communications, IT and power industries already have come together to consider exactly what technologies are necessary, how they will be interconnected and what standards refinement or creation will be required to accelerate deployment. This work has been going on, in fact, for nearly a year, and the first fruits of the labor soon will be forthcoming.</p>
<h4>Toward Standards</h4>
<p>The consensus work taking place within the unified community of communications, IT and power engineers today will fuel the go-to-market strategies of technology manufacturers and the utilities who operate the smart grid tomorrow.</p>
<p>The IEEE Standards Association has been involved in smart-grid development requirements co-incident with the creation and passage of the <i>Energy Independence and Security Act</i>. The IEEE P2030 Work Group launched in March 2009 to unite the communications, IT and power industries in defining terms, necessary elements and functional requirements toward crafting smart-grid standards. The work continues in 2010.</p>
<p>Task forces have formed within the P2030 around each of the three industries, but their efforts dovetail in the development of a consensus design guide. For example, the power task force is developing a matrix of the smart-grid’s generation and applications areas to illuminate where interfaces will be necessary for exchange of information; the communications and IT task forces are using that framework of elements to determine how to enable two-way communications and control. Ultimately, the guide is intended to serve as “a knowledge base addressing terminology, characteristics, functional performance and evaluation criteria, and the application of engineering principles for smart-grid interoperability of the electric power system with end-use applications and loads.” It’s scheduled to be available in draft form for balloting in March 2011, and then to evolve as appropriate across the smart-grid’s long-term rollout.</p>
<p>In large part, the technologies that will comprise the smart grid exist today. But standardized methods remain undeveloped for communications and control across those technologies in the interstate smart grid. The consensus design guide being developed by the communications, IT and power communities through the IEEE P2030 Work Group is critical because it will enable the refinement or creation of that broad reach of standards, spanning:</p>
<p>• Demand response;<br />• Wide-area situational awareness;<br />• Storage;<br />• Distribution;<br />• Metering infrastructure;<br />• Renewable energy integration;<br />• Cyber security;<br />• Data networking;<br />• Information and communications modeling;<br />• New-scenario management (<i>e.g.</i>, supporting electric vehicles); and<br />• Sensor and other device management.</p>
<p>A more robust family of widely embraced standards is necessary for the seamless deployment, integration and operation of energy, information and communications technologies across the smart grid. That also would reduce the technical barriers to futuristic manufacturing of plug-and-play equipment for the smart grid.</p>
<p>Due process, openness, consensus and transparency must characterize the path from organizing around an idea to ratifying a standard, and further to include post-publication activities. This will ensure that no single party of interest dominates a process, and that real progress is made toward a meaningful solution. Consensus-building efforts, such as those of the IEEE P2030 Work Group, provide such a means toward achieving the standards that will ensure smart-grid success.</p>
<p>The communications, IT and power industries need the input of utilities in this effort now to ensure that the smart grid of tomorrow delivers the efficiencies, levels of performance and reliability and consumer benefits that they require.</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-article-category field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above clearfix"><h3 class="field-label">Category (Actual): </h3><ul class="links"><li class="taxonomy-term-reference-0"><a href="/article-categories/smart-grid">Smart Grid</a></li></ul></div><div class="field field-name-field-members-only field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Viewable to All?:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-article-featured field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Is Featured?:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-picture field-type-image field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Image Picture:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://www.fortnightly.com/sites/default/files/article_images/1002/images/1002-FEA2.jpg" width="979" height="1500" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-fortnightly-40 field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Is Fortnightly 40?:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-law-lawyers field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Is Law &amp; Lawyers:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above clearfix">
<div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div>
<div class="field-items">
<a href="/tags/ami">AMI</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/commission">Commission</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/cyber-security">Cyber security</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/demand-response">Demand response</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/department-energy">Department of Energy</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/dg">DG</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/distribution">Distribution</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/due-process">Due process</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/energy-independence-and-security-act">Energy Independence and Security Act</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/energy-secretary-steven-chu">Energy Secretary Steven Chu</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/federal-energy-regulatory-commission">Federal Energy Regulatory Commission</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/federal-energy-regulatory-commission-ferc">Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/ferc">FERC</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/iee">IEE</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/ieee">IEEE</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/ieee-1547">IEEE 1547</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/ieee-p2030">IEEE P2030</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/ieee-standards-association">IEEE Standards Association</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/it">IT</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/national-institute-standards-and-technology">National Institute of Standards and Technology</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/nist">NIST</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/pmu">PMU</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/renewable">Renewable</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/security">Security</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/steven-chu">Steven Chu</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/storage">storage</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/technology">Technology</a><span class="pur_comma">, </span><a href="/tags/us-department-energy">U.S. Department of Energy</a> </div>
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Mon, 01 Feb 2010 05:00:00 +0000puradmin13650 at http://www.fortnightly.com